LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


OF" 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 
Accessions  NoJTfr£~/*7.      Class  No. 


SERIES  OF  SERMONS 


ON  THE 


XXXIII.  CHAPTER  OF  DEUTERONOMY. 


BY  WM.  PARKINSON,  A.  M. 

PASTOR    OF    THE    FIRST    BAPTIST    CHURCH,    NEW-YORK. 


PUBLISHED    AT    THE    REQUEST    OF   SAID    CHURCH. 


Thou  in  thy  mercy  hast  led  forth  the  people  which  thou  hast  redeemed ;  thou  hast  guided  them 
in  thy  strength  unto  thy  holy  habitation.— Exo.  xv.  13. 

In  all  their  affliction  he  was  afflicted,  and  the  Angel  of  his  presence  saved  them  ;.  in  his  love 
and  in  his  pity  he  redeemed  them ;  and  he  bare  them,  and  carried  them,  all  the  days  of  old. — 
la.  Ixiii.  9. 

Moreover,  I  will  endeavor  that  ye  may  be  able,  after  my  decease,  to  have  these  things  always 
in  remembrance.— 2  Pet.  i.  15. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  I. 


NEW-YORK: 
J.    M.   MORGAN   &   Co.  No.  4  BOWERY. 

G.  F.  Sunce,  Printer. 


1831. 


U1TJ7SRSITF 


ENTERED  ACCORDING  TO  ACT  OF  CONGRESS, 

la  the  year  1831,  by  William  Parkinson,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court 
of  the  Southern  District  of  New-York. 


TO   THE   READER. 

WHEREAS  the  spelling  of  several  words  in  this  work  is  different 
from  the  common  orthography,  it  is  thought  expedient,  by  way 
of  defense,  to  mention  a  few  instances  of  it,  with  the  authorities 
for  them.  They  are  chiefly  the  following  : 

1.  The  termination  er  is  preferred  to  re,  as  in  scepter.     Bailey's 
and  Martin's  Dictionaries  prefer  that  form  which  makes  a  regular 
derivative  as  sceptered.     So  Milton  and  the  best  writers  generally 
of  the  last  century.     Webster's  Great   Dictionary  also,  has  all 
these  words  in  this  form. 

2.  Or  is  preferred  to  our,  as  in  labor,  vigor,  <fcc.     Walker's 
Principles,  314 — his  decision  on   honor,  and  his  Rhyming  Dic- 
tionary.    Also  Ash's  Dictionary,  and  the  best  modern  practice. 

3.  Final  e  is  preferred  to  two  vowels  before  a  consonant,  as  pro - 
cede  and  lothe,  rather  than  proceed  and  loath,  or  loathe.    Analogy. 

4.  When  useless,  e  final  is  rejected,  as  in  elicit,  deposit,  &c. 
Dyche  and  Webster. 

5.  C  final  is  preferred  to  ck  as  in  sceptic.      Thirteen  standard 
Dictionaries  and  the  best  practice. 

6.  S  is  preferred  to  c  soft,  as  in  expense,  defense,  &c.  Bai- 
ley, Johnson  in  his  derivatives,  and  Webster. 

7.  In  derivatives,  the  final  consonant,  when  not  under  the  ac- 
cent, is  not  doubled ;  as  worshiped,  from  worship;   traveler,  tra- 
veling and  traveled,  from  travel.     See  Perry's  Rule,  p.  15,  8vp. 
Dictionary. 

For  an  illustration  of  the  grounds  of  these  and  some  other  va- 
riations, from  common  practice,  which  will  be  found  in  the  spel- 
ling throughout  this  Series  of  Sermons,  (mistakes  excepted,) 
the  reader  is  referred  to  "PRACTICAL  ORTHOGRAPHY,  by  WILLIAM 
BEARCROFT,  late  Master  of  the  Academy,  Kirky  Mooreside ;"  and 
especially  to  the  late  edition  of  it  "Revised"  (by  a  comparison  of 
twenty-five  STANDARD  Dictionaries)  "and  greatly  enlarged  by 
DANIEL  H.  BARNES,  one  of  the  Principals  of  the  New- York  High 
School."  From  the  color  of  its  cover,  this  valuable  Work,  so 
deserving  of  the  studious  perusal  of  the  rising  generation,  is  now 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  THE  RED  BOOK. 


A  Note  from  the  learned  DR.  MITCHILL,  (lately  deceased,) 
respecting  the  first  two  Sermons  of  this  Series. 

REV.  WM.  PARKINSON. 

Dear  Sir, 

I  have  read  the  two  published  Sermons  on  the  Ministry  of 
Moses,  which  you  were  good  enough  to  send  me  a  few  days 
ago.  I  am  greatly  pleased  with  the  classical  research  and 
biblical  erudition  with  which  they  abound. 

That  Hebrew  lawgiver,  was,  as  you  observe,  "  truly  an  ex- 
traordinary character  ;"  and  I  scarcely  know  which  to  admire 
most  your  literal  or  typical  account  of  him.  Though  perhaps 
I  should  not  be  greatly  mistaken  in  ascribing  to  the  former 
more  profound  learning,  and  to  the  latter  more  ingenious  elu- 
cidation. 

You  seem  to  be  fully  possessed  of  your  subject ;  yet  there 
can  be  no  harm  in  offering  you  my  wishes  for  its  complete 
execution,  according  to  your  enlarged  and  instructive  plan. 

I  am  pleased  to  find  you  have  adopted  the  orthography  of 
Bearcroft  ;  and  that  you  have  made  a  respectful  reference  to 
Barnes's  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  his  publication,  under 
the  name  of  the  Red  Book.  A  short  time  ago,  he  gave  me  an 
interesting  discourse  upon  the  performance  ;  and  in  a  subse- 
quent conversation,  very  lately,  the  able  principal  of  the  High 
School,  made  very  respectful  mention  of  you. 

Truly  and  with  respectful  and  friendly  feeling  yours, 

SAMUEL  L.  MITCHILL. 

New-York,  Oct.  19th,  1828. 


PREFACE. 


UffJVBRSXf] 


IT  was  not  till  more  than  half  my  Sermons  on  the  Thirty- 
third  chapter  of  Deuteronomy  were  delivered,  that  I  had  a 
thought  of  issuing  them  from  the  press.  And,  when  individu- 
als, whose  judgment  I  respected,  expressed  a  wish  that  they 
should  be  published,  I  shrunkfrom  the  undertaking,  assured 
that,  to  write  them  out  from  the  short  notes  I  had  made,  to 
govern  my  studies,  preparatory  to  preaching  them,  must  cost  me 
much  labor,  and  that  all  the  time  requisite  thereto,  I  should 
need  for  making  successive  preparations  for  the  pulpit,  and 
for  discharging  my  other  pastoral  duties. 

At  that  stage  of  the  work,  too,  I  had  become  more  fully 
convinced  than  I  was  at  the  commencement  of  it,  that  the 
chapter  on  which  I  was  sermonizing,  is  a  very  abstruse  portion 
of  sacred  Writ,  and  that  a  Preacher  or  Writer,  to  be  qualified 
to  give  a  just  interpretation  of  it,  and  to  make  a  judicious  and 
profitable  use  of  it,  must  have  much  more  knowledge  of  Jewish 
antiquities  than  I  possessed  ;  and  therefore,  that  however  ac- 
ceptable my  sermons  thereon  might  be,  as  delivered  viva  voce, 
to  render  them  at  all  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  library  of  an 
intelligent  Christian,  and  especially  in  that  of  a  biblical  stu- 
dent, I  must  be  at  the  pains  of  much  additional  research ; 
for  which  I  felt  a  great  deficiency  of  time — of  books — and  of 
oriental  learning. 

Besides,  from  the  progress  then  made,  I  perceived  that,  in 
regard  to  several  things  expressed  or  alluded  to  in  the  chap- 
ter before  me,  I  must  conscientiously  differ  in  opinion,  from 
certain  Commentators  and  Critics,  who  are  generally  thought 
to  be  almost  infallible,  and  from  those  Writers  on  the  types, 
also,  who  are  the  most  generally  received  and  admired.  This, 
I  well  knew,  would  expose  me,  however  unjustly,  to  the  im- 
putation of  arrogance  and  the  affectation  of  novelty. 


IV  PREFACE. 

I  was  also  fully  aware,  that  those  types  of  which  I  should 
have  occasion  to  treat,  if  faithfully  traced  in  accordance 
with  the  New  Testament,  must  lead  to  such  views  of  Christ 
. — of  his  atonement,  righteousness,  and  intercession — and,  of 
x  his  church,  ordinances,  and  government,  as  would  render  the 
work  unpopular,  even  among  the  generality  of  processed 
Christians,  and  especially,  as  being  devoid  of  those  embellish- 
ments of  style,  by  which  some  authors  unhappily  eclipse  truth, 
and  others  wickedly  conceal  error. 

At  length,  however,  I  consented  that  the  question  on  the  ex- 
pediency of  publishing  these  Sermons,  should  be  submitted  to 
the  church  I  serve ;  whose  members,  after  hearing  all  my  ob- 
jections to  engaging  in  the  work,  and  being  distinctly  appris- 
ed, that,  should  I  engage  in  it,  they  must  relinquish,  for  a 
considerable  time,  their  claim  to  my  accustomed  visits,  proceed- 
ed, notwithstanding,  to  pass  the  following  resolution : — 

"Having  heard;  with  interest,  and,  we  trust,  with  some 
spiritual  benefit,  the  Sermons  preached  by  our  pastor,  from  the 
Thirty-third  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  we  are  of  opinion  that  it 
would  contribute  to  the  diffusion  of  Evangelical  Truth,  and 
to  our  own  edification  and  that  of  other  Christians,  to  have 
them  published  ; — wherefore,  Resolved,  That  brethren  Graves, 
Barnard,  Conrey,  Skellorn,  Lyon,  Whitney,  and  Gould,  be  a 
Committee  to  confer  with  our  Pastor  on  the  Expediency  of  the 
measure,  and,  if  it  meet  his  approbation,  to  solicit  him  to  pre- 
pare the  work  for  the  Press,  as  soon  as  convenient. 

"R.  GRAVES,  Ch.  Clerk." 

Supported  and  encouraged  by  the  above  Resolution,  and 
remembering  that,  with  such  gifts  as  the  Lord  had  bestowed 
upon  me,  I  was  the  servant  of  the  people  who  had  passed 
it,  1  commenced  writing  ;  and,  by  employing  in  that  way, 
such  intervals  as,  by  extra  exertion,  I  could  redeem  from  the 
time  usually  appropriated  to  other  studies,  or  to  needful  re- 
pose, I  have,  by  slow  degrees,  in  some  manner  completed 
the  Fint  Volume. 


PREFACE.  V 

According  to  my  Proposals,  the  Work  was  to  be  comprised 
in  twenty-six  Sermons,  averaging  24  pages  each ;  but,  having 
.  had  to  make  two  sermons  on  The  Ministry  of  Moses,  and  two 
on  The  Urim  and  Thummim — and  anticipating  the  like  ne- 
cessity on  some  other  subjects,  I  am  convinced,  that  if  I 
should  stop  with  the  twenty-sixth  discourse,  several  of  the 
best  would  remain  unpublished.  Nor  (if  the  sermons  ara 
worth  having)  can  it  be  any  matter  of  regret  to  subscribers, 
to  receive  a  few  more  of  them  than  expected — especially  as 
the  expense  is  too  small  and  gradual  to  be  felt. 

Those  subscribers  who  heard  the  Sermons  of  this  volume 
preached,  and  who  thought  them  valuable  then,  must  readily 
perceive  that  they  are  much  more  so  now ;  for,  in  preparing 
them  for  the  press,  without  divesting  them  of  a  single  idea, 
which  they  originally  embraced,  I  have  variously  illustrated 
and  confirmed  many  ideas,  which  then  were  only  suggested. 
Besides,  the  NOTES,  some  of  which  cost  me  much  research 
and  study,  are  entirely  additional — and  which,  by  the  most 
competent  judges,  among  those  who  have  read  them,  are 
supposed  to  contain  much  important  and  useful  information. 

Neither  have  my  subscribers,  like  many  who  have  subscrib- 
ed for  new  Works,  reason  to  complain  of  deficiency  in  the 
.quantity  of  matter  promised.  This  volume,  consisting  of  xvii.. 
Sermons,  at  the  proposed  average  of  24  pages  each,  would 
contain  only  408  pages  ;  whereas  it  contains  (exclusive  of  the 

Title,  the  Preface,  and  the  Table  of  Contents)  554  pages . 

and  therefore  a  surplus  of  146  pages,  or  6  sermons,  at  my  own 
expense, 

A  critical  reader  of  these  Sermons,  will  probably  feel  dis- 
gusted at  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  same  ideas — nay,  of 
the  same  terms  and  phrases.  But,  when  he  considers  how 
many  persons  and  things  herein  treated  of,  were  types  of 
Christ — and  that,  not  only  Israel,  as  a  whole,  but  each  tribe 
thereof  also,  in  certain  respects,  was  a  type  of  the  church,  he 
will  perceive  that  to  have  avoided  altogether  what  he  is  dis- 


Vi  PREFACE. 

gusted  at,  would  have  been  a  very  difficult  and  rare  attain- 
ment. 

Some,  it  is  understood,  complain  of  the'  Hebrew  words  and 
phrases,  occasionally  employed  in  this  work.  But  certainly 
this  is  a  groundless  objection.  To  the  Hebrew  scholar,  it 
must  be  grateful — and,  to  the  mere  English  reader,  it  pre- 
sents no  obstacle  ;  as  the  Hebrew  is  always  translated,  and 
generally  even  the  pronunciation  of  it  is  given  in  roman  let- 
ters. 

On  reviewing  the  Sermons  contained  in  this  volume,  I  ob- 
serve in  them  many  defects,  both  in  arrangement  of  matter, 
and  in  perspicuity  of  diction — and  doubt  riot,  that,  in  these  re- 
spects as  well  as  others,  better  judges  will  discover  in  them, 
many  more.  And  though  it  is  due  to  the  Printer,  to  ac- 
knowledge that  what  belongs  to  his  department,  is,  generally 
speaking,  well  executed,  I  nevertheless,  to  my  great  regret, 
find  in  the  Work  some  typographical  inaccuracies,  which,  in 
reading  the  proofs,  escaped  his  eye,  as  well  as  my  own.  But, 
as  these,  whether  in  Orthography,  in  Punctuation  or  in 
References,  are  all  (so  far  as  noticed)  such  as  any  reader, 
likely  to  detect  them,  can  easily  correct,  I  think  it  unnecessary 
to  note  them,  by  giving  a  list  or  errata. 

In  applying  such  of  the  types  as  I  had  occasion  to  treat  of, 
to  Christ  and  his  church,  I  have  endeavored,  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, to  follow  the  light  of  the  New  Testament ; — when  this 
did  not  (to  my  observation)  furnish  the  needful  clue,  I  avail- 
ed myself,  whenever  I  could,  of  Old-Testament  prophecy, 
regarding  the  Messiah  and  his  kingdom  ;  and  if,  in  some 
instances,  I  have  suggested  thoughts  without  supporting  them 
by  any  reference  to  Scripture,  they  are  either  such  as  are 
obviously  true,  or  such  as  relate  to  points  not  decided  by  ex- 
press revelation,  and  on  which,  I,  like  others,  have  ventured  to 
offer  mine  opinion. 

The  METHOD  OP  SALVATION,  kept  in  view  in  these  Ser- 
mons, is  that  on  which  my  helpless  soul  has  constantly,  and, 


PREFACE.  Vll 

at  times,  with  great  satisfaction  and  delight,  exclusively  re- 
lied, for  more  than  thirty-five  years — and  which,  for  about 
thirty-three  of  these  years,  I  have  been  publishing  and  ex- 
plaining to  others.  And  though  favored,  I  trust,  during 
that  time,  with  some  growth  of  knowledge  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  I  am  not  conscious  of  a  shade  of  change  in  my 
doctrinal  views,  since  I  commenced  preaching:  Nay,  so  as- 
sured am  I  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  doctrines  I  have 
uniformly  labored  to  inculcate,  that  my  primary  object  in 
consenting  to  the  publication  of  this  Work,  is,  that  the  dearly 
.beloved  church  and  congregation,  whom  I  have  served  nearly 
twenty-seven  years,  and  all  others,  among  whom  I  have,  at 
any  time,  gone  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God,  may  be  able, 
after  my  decease,  to  have  these  things  always  in  remembrance. 

That  these  Sermons,  in  the  hand  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  may 
be  instrumental,  in  comforting  believers — in  awakening  sin- 
ners— and  in  directing  inquiring  souls  to  Christ,  is  the  desire 
and  prayer  of 

THE    PREACHER, 

WM.  PARKINSON. 

New-York,  Oct.  27, 1831. 


- 


CONTENTS    OF   VOLUME  I. 


SERMON  I. 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  MOSES. 

DEUTERONOMY  xxxiii.  1. — And  this  is  the  blessing  wherewith  Moses, 
the  servant  of  God,  blessed  the  children  of  Israel  before  his 
death Page  1—44 

SERMON  II. 

THE    MINISTRY   OF    MOSES    SPIRITUALIZED. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  1. — And  this  is  the  blessing  wherewith  Moses  tht 
servant  of  God,  blessed  the  children  of  Israel  before  his 
death.  ...  .  .  p.  45—96 

SERMON  III. 

THE   DELIVERY  AND  AUTHORITY  OF  THE   LAW. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  2.  — And  he  said,  The  Lord  came  from  Sinai,  and 
rose  up  from  Seir  unto  them  ;  he  shined  forth  from  mount  Pet- 
ran,  and  he  came  with  ten  thousands  of  saints:  from  his  right 
hand  went  a  fiery  law  for  them.  .  .  .  p.  97 — 138 

SERMON   IV. 

THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  MANIFESTED  TO  ISRAEL. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  3. —  Yea,  he  loved  the  people:  all  his  saints  are  in 
thy  hand:  and  they  sat  down  at  thy  feet,  every  one  shall  receive 
of  thy  words.  ......  p.  139 — 164 

SERMON  V. 

THE  MOSAIC  LAW  AN  INHERITANCE  TO  ISRAEL. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  4. — Jdoses  commanded  us  a  law  :  even  the  inherit- 
ance of  the  congregation  of  Jacob.  .  .  p.  165 — 192 


X  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  VI. 

MOSES  WAS  KING  IN  JESHURUN. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  5. — And  he  was  king  in  Jeshurun,  when  the  heads 
of  the  people  and  the  tribes  of  Israel  were  gathered  toge- 
ther   p.  193—216 

SERMON  VII. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  REUBEN. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  6. — Let  Reuben  live,  amd  not  die  ;  and  let  not  his 
men  be  few p.  217—237 

SERMON   VIII. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JUDAH. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  7. — And  this  is  the  blessing  ofJudah  :  and  he  said, 
Hear,  LORD,  the  voice  of  Judah  ;  and  bring  him  unto  his  peo- 
ple :  let  his  hands  be  sufficient  for  him  :  and  be  thou  an  help  to 
him  from  his  enemies.  ....  p.  238 — 266 

SERMON   IX. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVL— HIS  URIM  AND  THUMMIM. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  8 — II. — And  of  Levi  he  said,  Let  thy  Thummimand 
thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  whom  thou  didst  prove  at 
Massah,  and  with  whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meri- 
bah;  who  said  unto  his  father  and  to  his  mother,  I  have  not 
seen  him ;  neither  did  he  acknowledge  his  brethren,  nor  knew 
his  own  children  ;  -for  they  have  observed  thy  word,  and  kept  thy 
covenant.  They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy  judgments,  and  Israel 
thy  law :  they  shall  put  incense  before  thee,  and  whole  burnt 
sacrifice  upon  thine  altar.  Bless,  LORD,  his  substance,  and  ac- 
cept the  work  of  his  hands  :  smite  through  the  loins  of  them  that 
rise  against  him,  and  of  them  that  hate  him,  that  they  rise  not 
again.  - p.  267—286 

SERMON  X. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVL— HIS  URIM  AND  THUMMIM. 

CONSIDERED    MYSTICALLY. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  8 — 11. — And  of  Levi  he  said,  Let  thy  Thummim 
and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  $c.  .  p.  287—334 


XI 

SEKMON    XL 
THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVI  CONTINUED. 

HIS    DEPORTMENT    AND    SERVICE. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  8—  II .  P-  335—382 

SERMON   XII. 
THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVI  CONTINUED. 

HIS  SUBSTANCE  BLESSED,  AND    HIS    ENEMIES    VANQUISHED. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  8— 11.        ...  .        p.  383— 408 

SERMON  XIII. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  12. — And  of  Benjamin  he  said,  The  beloved  of  the 
LORD  shall  dwell  in  safely  by  him  ;  and  the  LORD  shall  cover 
him  all  the  day  long,  and  he  shall  dwell  between  his  shoul- 
ders. .  .  .  .  p.  409— 432 

SERMON  XIV. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JOSEPH. 

JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST. 

Deut.  xxxiii.  13 — 17. — And  of  Joseph  he  said,  Blessed  of  the  Lord 
be  his  land,  for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew,  and 
for  the  deep  that  coucheth  benealh.  And  for  the  precious  fruits 
brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for  the  precious  things  put  forth 
by  the  moon.  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains^ 
and  for  the  precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills.  And  for  the  pre- 
cious things  of  the  earth  and  fulness  thereof;  and  for  the  good-, 
will  of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush.  Let  the  blessing  come  upon 
the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon  the  top  of  the  head  of  him  that 
was  separated  from  his  brethren.  His  glory  is  like  the  firstling 
of  his  bullock,  and  his  horns  are  like  the  horns  of  unicorns;  with 
them  he  shall  push  the  people  together  to  the  ends  of  the  earths 
and  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of  Ephraim,  and  they  are 
the  thousands  of  Manasseh.  p.  433 — 484 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

SERMON   XV. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JOSEPH  CONTINUED. 

JOSEPH'S    LAND    A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST*S    CHURCH. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  13—17 p.  485—512 

SERMON  XVf. 
JOSEPH'S  BLESSING  CONTINUED. 

THE    GOOD-WILL   OF    HIM    THAT   DWELT    IN  THE    BUSH. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  13—17 p.  513—532 

SERMON  XVII. 

JOSEPH'S  BLESSING  CONTINUED. 

JOSEPH'S .  PRE-EMINENCE. 

DEUT.  xxxiii.  13—17.  .        .        .        .        p.  533—554 


SERMON  I. 

THE    MINISTRY    OF    MOSES* 


DEUT.  xxxiii.  1. — And  this  is  the  blessing  wherewith  Moses,  the 
man  of  God,  blessed  the  children  of  Israel  before  his  death. 


AMONG  the  Jews,  each  book  of  the  Pentateuch  was 
primarily  and  most  commonly  called  by  the  first 
word  or  two  of  its  original.  Accordingly,  with 
them,  the  primary  name  of  this  book  was  Elleh  Ha- 
debareem,  These  are  the  words.  In  process  of  time, 
however,  their  writers,  with  more  propriety,  distin- 
guished these  sacred  books  by  names  suggested  by 
their  respective  contents.  Thus,  for  instance,  this 
book  has  been  called  Sepher  Tochachoth,  The  book 
of  Reproofs,  because  it  contains  so  many  reproofs 
of  Israel,  for  their  idolatry  and  other  sins ;  and 
Mishneh  Ha-torah,  A  repetition  of  the  Law,  be- 
cause of  this  it  chiefly  consists.  This  very  appro- 
priate name  of  it,  is  found  in  the  book  itself:  (a) 
"And  it  shall  be  when  he  (the  king  of  Israel)  sit- 
teth  upon  the  throne  of  his  kingdom,  that  he  shall 
write  (ft  lo)  for  him,  for  his  own  use  and  direction 
minn  rwD-r\K  eth  mishneh  ha-torah,  which  we  trans- 
late a  copy  of  the  law,  but  which  literally  means  the 
or  this  repetition,  duplicate,  or  doubling  of  the  law ; 
Mishneh  being  from  nr#  shanah,  to  repeat  or  double; 
and  which,  by  the  way,  shows  that  the  law  which 
the  king  was  required  to  write  out,  was  this  very 
book.  From  the  same  source  it  has  its  Greek  name, 

(a)  Chap.  xvii.  18. 
1 


Deuteronomy;  for  the  LXX.  or  LXXII.  Jews,  who 
translated  the  Old  Testament  into  Greek,  having 
rendered  Mishneh  Ha-torah  by  ™  JWt/>«»fljmov,  adopted 
it,  (as  their  fathers  had  the  corresponding  phrase  in 
Hebrew,)  as  the  title  of  the  book,  and  manifestly 
for  a  like  reason ;  for  $tvTtfwtu,i<H  Deuteronomy,  from 
2fvT(pas  second  and  W*  law,  with  the  article  prefixed, 
signifies  the  or  this  second  law.  Neither  the  Jewish 
translators,  however,  nor  our  own,  by  calling  this 
book  Deuteronomy,  meant  thereby  to  imply  that  it 
is  another  law  revoking  the  former,  but  merely  that 
it  is  a  second  publication  of  the  same  law — moral, 
ceremonial  and  judicial ;  accompanied  with  explan- 
ations and  exhortations,  and  indeed  with  some  ad- 
ditional injunctions  to  be  observed  by  the  Israelites, 
in  the  land  whither  they  were  going.  (5) 

Nor  was  this  recapitulation  without  obvious  and 
important  reasons.  The  law  was  not  then  common 
in  the  hands  of  the  Israelites,  as  the  Bible  is  now 
in  the  hands  of  Christians:  the  autograph,  proba- 
bly, was  the  only  copy  of  it  in  being ;  and,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  the  generation  of  the  Jews  then  liv- 
ing consisted  of  persons  who,  at  the  time  the  law 
was  delivered  on  Sinai,  were  either  unborn,  or,  at 
least,  too  young  to  understand  and  remember  it,  to 
much  advantage,  (c)  Besides,  on  their  literal  ob- 
servance of  the  law  depended  their  continuance  and 
temporal  prosperity  in  Canaan,  the  possession  of 
which  they  were  just  about  to  receive ;  wherefore, 
both  for  their  instruction  and  well-being  and  to 
manifest  the*  equity  of  his  own  future  procedings  in 
regard  to  them,  it  behoved  God  to  cause  this  expli- 
cit statement  to  be  made  to  them  of  the  terms  of 
the  charter,  by  the  observance  of  which  they  might 
hold  and  upon  the  breach  of  which  they  must  forfeit 

(1)  Ch.  i.  1 ;  iv.  1 ;  vi.  1 ;  &  Ch.  xxvii.    (c)  Ch.  i.  39  &  ii.  14—16. 


3 

the  promised  inheritance,  (d)  Happy  is  it  for  the 
heirs  of  grace  and  of  glory,  that  their  inheritance 
does  not,  in  like  manner,  depend  on  the  defective 
basis  of  their  own  obedience,  (e) 

That  this  rehearsal  of  the  law  to  the  Israelites, 
might  make  the  more  awful  and  lasting  impression 
upon  them,  Moses,  no  doubt  by  divine  direction, 
prefaced  it  with  an  account  of  the  calamities  which 
had  already  befallen  their  nation  for  the  neglect  and 
transgression  of  it,  and  with  an  assurance  that  "  for 
their  sakes ;"  (they  having  provoked  him  to  the  use 
of  unadvised  expressions ;)  (/)  he  himself  was  un- 
der the  divine  displeasure,  and  must  be  taken  from 
them,  without  entering  the  earthly  Canaan,  (g) 
And  still  further  to  awaken  them  to  a  sense  of  their 
obligations  and  to  excite  them  to  perseverance  in 
watchfulness  and  well-doing,  he  accompanied  the 
rehearsal,  as  he  advanced  in  it  from  time  to  time, 
with  the  most  pathetic  exhortations,  the  most  solemn 
cautions,  and  the  most  fearful  threatenings ;  and 
these  interspersed  with  recitals  of  what  God  had 
already  done  for  them,  and  of  his  promises  which, 
on  condition  of  their  obedience,  remained  to  be  ful- 
filled to  them.  (Ji)  Moreover,  all  these  laws  which 
he  thus  carefully  rehearsed,  explained  and  incul- 
cated, he  committed  to  writing  for  their  future  di- 
rection and  benefit,  (i)  And,  recollecting  that  all 
this  was  performed  by  him  in  the  last  month  of  his 
life,  we  can  readily  believe  the  inspired  assertion, 
that  though  he  was  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  old, 
"  his  eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abat- 
ed." (K) 

(b)  xxviii.  58,  &c.  Comp.  Is.  i.  19,  20.  (e)  Psal.  ixxxiv.  11, 
Rom.  x.  4.  Col.  iii.  3.  (/)  Num.  xx.  10—12  and  Psal.  cvi.  32,  33. 
(g)  Chapters  i.  ii.  and  iii.  (h)  From  the  iv.  to  the  xxx.  Chap, 
(i)  Chap.  i.  5  and  xxxi.  4,  9,  24.  (k)  Chap.  i.  3  and  xxxiv.  7. 


That  Moses  wrote  this  book  and  that  he  wrote  it 
under  divine  inspiration,  is  testified  both  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New,  by  other  inspired  writers ; 
who  refer  to  it,  not  only  as  the  work  of  Moses,  but 
also  as  the  word  of  God.  (/)  From  this  book  our 
Lord  himself  took  all  the  passages  by  which  he  re- 
pelled and  vanquished  the  prince  of  darkness,  (m) 
In  short,  the  numerous  and  explicit  prophecies  con- 
tained in  it,  and  especially  their  undeniable  fulfil- 
ment, both  in  the  Jewish  nation  and  in  its  antitype, 
the  Christian  church,  (w)  unanswerably  demonstrate 
that  it  came  from  Him  who  "  declares  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  and  from  ancient  times  the  things 
that  are  riot  yet  done."  (0) 

Of  this  inspired  book,  the  chapter  before  us  is  an 
important  portion.  It  is  important  as  it  concludes 
the  labors  of  Moses,  so  eminent  among  the  ancient 
servants  of  God ;  but  much  more  so,  as  it  confirms, 
by  his  dying  testimony,  the  all-important  fact,  that 
the  law,  in  the  manner  he  had  before  asserted,  and 
recorded,  was  through  him  delivered  to  Israel  from 
Mount  Sinai,  and  as  it  contains  his  valedictory  bene- 
diction, both  general  and  special,  pronounced  upon 
the  beloved  people  of  his  charge  ;  in  which  we  have 
a  prophetical  history  of  national  Israel  and  a  typical 
history  of  spiritual  Israel. 

Between  this  chapter  and  the  preceding  one,  there 
is  an  obvious  contrast.  In  the  preceding  chapter, 

(/)  1  Kings  ii.  3,  4.  2  Chron.  xxv.  4.  Dan.  ix.  11,  13.  John 
i.  45.  Acts  iii.  22  and  vii.  37.  Rom.  x.  6,  8.  1  Cor.  ix.  9. 
Gal.  iii.  10 — 43.  (m)  Matt.  iv.  4,  7,  10.  compared  with  Deut. 
viii.  3.  and  vi.  16,  13.  (n)  See  chap,  xxviii.  comp.  ver.  32  and 
41  with  Lam.  v.  7 — 13  and  Matt,  xxiii.  37,  38 ;  and  ver.  36,  37, 
49,  50,  with  2  Kings  xvii.  6 — 23  and  xxiv.  11 — 16;  Psal.  xliv. 
9 — 14  and  Luke  xxi.  20 — 24.  Also  chap,  xviii.  15  with  Acts  iii. 
22.  and  chap.  vii.  6—8  with  1  Pet.  ii.  9.  (o)  Is.  xlvi.  10. 


Moses,  divinely  inspired,  had  thundered  out  the  ter- 
rors of  the  Almighty  against  Israel  for  their  sins ;  in 
this,  guided  by  the  same  inspiration,  he  reminded 
them  of  the  favors  which,  notwithstanding  their 
ingratitude  and  rebelion,  God  had  conferred  upon 
them,  and  foretold  blessings  which  he  still  had  in 
reserve  for  them. 

If,  therefore,  in  the  former  chapter  he  might  seem 
to  upbraid  them,  yet  in  this,  being  permitted  to  as- 
sume a  milder  tone,  he  let  them  know  that  nothing 
he  had  said  proceded  from  ill-will — that  in  all  things 
he  aimed  at  their  good ;  and  thus,  leaving  his  peace 
with  them,  terminated  for  ever  his  labours  among 
them. 

That  the  subject  of  this  chapter  is  a  blessing,  is 
announced  in  the  title  of  it,  which  is  our  present 
text;  And  this  is  the  blessing  wherewith  Moses,  the 
man  of  God,  blessed  the  children  of  Israel  before  his 
death.     This  blessing  includes  both  his  solemn  re- 
cognition of  what  the  Lord,  through  him,  had  done 
for  Israel,  and  his  prophetic  enunciation  of  what  the 
Lord  had  further  revealed  to  him  concerning  Israel ; 
the  former  of  which  is  recorded  in  the  four  verses 
succeding  the  text,  and  the  latter  from  thence  to  the 
end  of  the  chapter.     The  particulars  of  each  will 
receive  attention,  in  their  respective  places,  as  we 
advance  in  the  proposed  Series.     In  the  mean  time, 
however,  that  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  therefore  of  the  chapter  before  us,  may 
be  the  more  evident,  I  design  to  give  a  compendium 
of  the  whole  Ministry  of  Moses;  by  which  it  will 
appear  that  he  acted  under  a  divine  commission, 
had  special  intercourse  with  God,  and  wrote  as  he 
was  "  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."*  This  compendium 

1  The  importance  of  this  compendium,  as  a  foundation  for  my 
subsequent  labors  on  this  chaptert  it  is  hoped  will,  in  some  measure, 


6 

will  be  found  amply  to  support  the  following  propo- 
sitions :  Moses,  as  the  gift  of  God,  was  a  great  bless- 
ing to  Israel,  during  his  public  life — and,  as  the  man 
of  God,  he  pronounced  upon  them,  the  blessing  ex- 
pressed in  this  chapter,  just  before  his  death. 

1.  Moses,  as  the  gift  of  God,  was  a  great  blessing 
to  Israel,  during  his  public  life.  Of  this,  the  sacred 
records  furnish  many  and  very  extraordinary  instan- 
ces. 

Through  Moses,  as  his  chosen  and  qualified  in- 
strument, God  redeemed  and  delivered  Israel.  I  say 
he  redeemed  arid  delivered  them,  because  their  re- 
demption and  their  deliverance  were  two  distinct 
favors :  the  former  from  liability  to  death ;  the  latter 
from  continuance  in  bondage.  And  though  both 
were  accomplished  through  the  agency  of  Moses, 
yet  by  different  means ;  their  redemption,  by  a  sacri- 
fice; their  deliverance,  by  a  rod.  Each  deserves 
further  notice. 

First,  Their  redemption.  "  Israel,"  said  the  Lord, 
"  is  my  son,  even  my  first-born ;  (p)  but  this  son  was 
found  in  Egypt,  every  first-born  of  which  was  doom- 
ed to  judicial  death;  (q)  therefore,  that  God's  heir 
might  escape,  he  must  be  redeemed.  For  this  pur- 
pose, through  Moses,  the  paschal  sacrifice  was  ap- 
pointed ;  not  to  redeem  the  Israelites  and  the  Egyp- 
tians in  common ;  but  the  Israelites  exclusively ;  nor 
yet  to  redeem  Egypt  for  the  sake  of  Israel,  but  to 
redeem  Israel  from  the  fate  of  Egypt.  For  although, 
by  the  residence  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren  among 
them,  the  Egyptians  had  received  many  mercies; 

serve   as  my  apology  for  drawing  the  matter  of  this  and  the 
following  sermon  from  the  history  of  Moses,  rather  than  from  the 
text  to  which  these  two  Sermons  are  appended, 
(p)  Exo.  iv.  22.     (q)  Ibid.  xi.  5. 


yet,  in  the  redemption  of  Israel,  they  had  no  inte- 
rest. This  is  evident.  The  sacrifice  was  specially 
appointed  and  designed  for  Israel,  even  for  all  of 
them,  "  according  to  the  number  of  the  souls ;"  they 
all  and  they  only  were  to  concur  in  slaying  it,  and 
to  be  protected  by  the  blood  of  it.  Thus  saith  the 
word  of  the  Lord:  "The  whole  assembly  of  the 
congregation  of  Israel  shall  kill  it  in  the  evening," 
or  between  the  two  evenings,  as  the  words  [o^^-n  pa 
beyn  ha-arbayim]  literally  mean;  that  is  between 
noon  and  sunset  ;*  "  And  the  blood  shall  be  to  you 
for  a  token  upon  the  houses  where  you  are :  and 
when  I  see  the  blood,  I  will  pass  over  you,  and  the 
plague  shall  not  come  upon  you,  to  destroy  you,  when 
I  smite  the  land  of  Egypt."  (r) 

Secondly,  Their  deliverance.  For  being  redeem- 
ed from  the  fate  of  Egypt,  they  were  thereupon  deli- 
vered from  the  yoke  of  Egypt.  In  this,  too,  the  in- 
strumentality of  Moses  was  very  apparent  and  very 
important.  With  this  he  was  charged  when  he  re- 
ceived his  commission:  "I,"  said  the  Lord  to  him, 
"  will  send  thee  to  Pharaoh,  that  thou  mayest  bring 
forth  my  people,  the  children  of  Israel,  out  of  Egypt ; 
— certainly  I  will  be  with  thee ;  and  this  shall  be  a 

*  Exo.  xii.  6.  The  Jews  divided  the  day  into  morning  aud  even- 
ing; the  former  continuing  from  six  o'clock  till  twelve,  and  the  latter 
from  then  till  dark.  The  evening,  however,  they  divided  into 
two  ;  the  first  computed  from  the  time  the  sun  began  to  decline 
from  his  meridian  altitude ;  and  the  second  from  the  time  of  his 
descent  below  the  horizon ;  and  between  these  two  evenings,  (pro- 
bably at  about  three  o'clock,  P.  M.)  the  passover  was  to  be  killed 
and  oifered ;  and  to  which  the  time  when  Christ,  the  antitype  of 
the  passover,  expired  upon  the  cross,  exactly  answers  ;  the  ninth 
hour  of  the  day,  counting  from  six  in  the  morning,  being  three 
in  the  afternoon.  Matt.  xxvi.  46.  See  Ainsworth,  on  the  place ; 
and  .Lew,  Ling.  Sacra,  under  aijr,  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Jews, 
p.  45,  &c.  (r)  Exo.  xii.  13. 

f 


8 

token  unto  thee,  that  I  have  sent  thee ;    When  thou 
hast  brought  forth  the  people  out  of  Egypt,  ye  shall 
serve  God  upon  this  mountain,  Horeb,  where  the 
Lord  was  then  speaking  to  him.  (s)     And  having 
silenced  all  his  objections  and  fears,  the  Lord  sent 
him,  with  no  visible  armor  but  a  rod  in  his  hand,  to 
conquer  Pharaoh  and  to  rescue  Israel.     This  rod, 
however,  though  naturally  a  mere  shepherd's  staff, 
was  supernaturally  more  than  a  scepter, — a  rod  of 
wonders ;  it  was  the  chosen  symbol  of  divine  power, 
and  was,  therefore,  emphatically  called  The  rod  of 
God.  (t)     By  means  of  this,  both  Moses  and  Aaron 
were  enabled  to  perform  such  miracles  as  demon- 
strated their  divine  mission :  (u)    "  The  people"  of 
Israel  "  believed,"  and  even  the  magicians  of  Egypt, 
unable  any  further  to  imitate  or  withstand,  said  to 
Pharaoh,  "  This  is  the  finger  of  God."  (w)    Never- 
theless, Pharaoh  hardened  himself  and  was  harden- 
ed ;  he  hardened  his  own  heart  wilfully,  (x)  and  God, 
by  leaving  him  to  the  influence  of  his  corrupt  pas- 
sions/and  the  instigations  of  Satan,  hardened  it  ju- 
dicially, (y)   Hence,  though  often  under  some  judg- 
ment, he  consented,  yet  as  often  he  again  "refused  to 
let  the  people  go."  (z) 

The  privilege  which  the  Israelites  entreated  Pha- 
raoh to  grant  them,  was  that  they  might  "  go  three 
days'  journey  into  the  wilderness,  to  sacrifice  to  the 
Lord  their  God."  (a)  Three  days  were  mentioned, 
because  in  that  time,  by  the  direct  way  and  at  the  or- 
dinary rate  of  traveling,  they  might  have  gone  from 

(s)  Exo.  iii.  10.  12.  (t)  Ibid.  iv.  2.  17,  20.  (u)  Ibid.  vi.  26, 
27;  vii.  9,  10,  19,  20;  viii.  16,  17;  ix.  8,  22 ;  x.  12,  13,21. 
(w)  Exod.  viii.  19;  ix.  11.  (x)  Ibid.  v.  2;  viii.  15,  32;  comp. 
Acts  xxviii.  26,  27.  (#)  Ibid.  vii.  11—13  ;  viii.  19 ;  ix.  12.  (z) 
Ibid.  viii.  8,  15,  25,  28,  32 ;  ix.  28.  35 ;  x,  24,  27.  (a)  Ibid.  v.  3. 


9 

the  borders  of  Egypt  to  Horeb,  the  mountain  on 
which,  according  to  promise,  they  were  to  serve  the 
Lord.  By  this,  however,  cannot  be  ascertained  the 
exact  distance  of  that  journey.  For  although,  ac- 
cording to  Herodotus,*  a  day's  journey  was  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  furlongs,  making  about  nineteen  miles, 
and,  according  to  some  Jewish  writers,  ten  parsas,\ 
amounting  to  forty  miles,  neither  of  these  estimates 
can  be  admitted  here ;  it  being  certain,  that,  in  those 
times,  distances  were  not  measured  by  chains  and 
links,  but  by  the  days  and  hours  required  to  pass 
over  them.  (&)  And,  indeed,  to  the  present  period, 
in  the  journals  of  eastern  travelers,  we  rarely  find 
any  mention  made  of  miles  and  furlongs,  but  fre- 
quently of  so  many  days  or  hours  journey. 

In  making  this  request,  the  Israelites,  it  must  be 
admitted,  sought  an  opportunity  of  doing  more  than 
they  expressed ;  for  while  they  asked  leave  merely 
to  go  three  days  journey,  they  manifestly  aimed  at 
making  a  complete  escape.  Of  this,  too,  it  should 
seem  Pharaoh  was  apprehensive ;  for  at  one  time, 
having  said  "  I  will  let  you  go,"  he  added,  by  way 
of  stipulation  and  restraint,  "  ye  shall  not  go  very 
far  away."  (c)  Nor  was  there  any  thing  reprehensi- 
ble in  their  design ;  for,  being  by  divine  authority 
entitled  to  freedom,  they  were  unrighteously  and  ty- 
rannically held  in  bondage.  Moreover,  as  the  man- 
agement of  the  case  was  wholly  according  to  divine 
direction,  it  must,  in  them,  have  been  perfectly  just 
and  innocent :  and  being  recorded  under  the  guidance 
of  divine  inspiration,  it  serves  to  show,  that  when 
God's  people  have  to  contend  with  oppressors  and 

*  Terpsichore,  Sive  1.  5.  c.  53.  f  T.  Bab.  Pesachim,  fol.  94.  1. 
(6)  Gen.  xxxi.  23.  Numb.  xi.  31.  Deut.  i.  2.  1  Kings  xix.  4. 
(c)  Exo.  viii.  28. 

2 


10 

persecutors,  they  may  lawfully  combine  the  wisdom 
of  the  serpent  with  the  innocence  of  the  dove ;  by 
which,  however,  is  not  meant  the  wisdom  of  "  the  old 
serpent,  the  devil,"  which  consists  in  lying  and  pre- 
varication ;  nor  that  of  venomous  serpents,  which  lies 
in  terrifying  their  adversaries,  with  their  fearful  hiss- 
ings, or  in  destroying  them,  with  their  deadly  stings ; 
but  the  allusion  is  simply  to  that  instinctive  faculty 
of  self-preservation,  by  which  the  Creator  made  the 
serpent  more  "  subtil,  or  prudent  [oiy,  Prov.  xiv. 
15, 18 ;  xv.  5.]  than  any  beast  of  the  field ;"  and  which 
may  be  observed  in  the  adroitness  by  which  many 
serpents  and  especially  those  which  are  called  innox- 
ious or  harmless,  elude  the  weapons  of  their  assail- 
ants and  effect  their  escape.  To  this,  in  some  re- 
spects, may  be  likened  that  prudence  which  God  be- 
stows on  his  people  when  they  are  assailed  by  ene- 
mies :  this  is  that  wisdom  which  is  profitable  to  di- 
rect"— that  "  wisdom  that  is  from  above,"  and  by 
which  the  saints  are  often  enabled,  in  a  very  remark- 
able manner,  to  baffle  satan  and  his  agents,  and  to 
escape  the  mischief  of  their  designs,  (d) 

Directed  by  this  wisdom,  the  Israelites  prudently 
requested  only  what  Pharaoh  and  his  predecessors 
had  been  accustomed  to  grant  to  others.  For,  ac- 
cording to  historians  and  travelers  most  conversant 
in  oriental  usages,  it  had  been  customary  with  the 
kings  of  Egypt,  from  the  very  origin  of  that  mon- 
archy, to  permit,  annually,  a  caravan  (subsequently 
imitated  by  that  of  Mahomet)  to  pass  through  their 
dominions  to  the  Kaaba,  the  temple  of  Ishmael,  at 
Mecca  ;  also  to  authorize  several  different  portions 

(d)  Exo.  iii.  7,  8, 18.  Comp.  1  Sam.  xvi.  2.  Gen.  iii.  1.  Matt. 
x  16.  Luke  xxi.  15.  Acts  xxiii.  17 — 24.  James  iii.  15, 17. 


11 

of  their  own  subjects,  both  statedly  and  occasional- 
ly, to  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  kingdom,  to  per- 
form the  ceremonies  of  their  respective  religions,  in 
places  which  they  deemed  peculiarly  sacred.*  Why, 
then,  should  Israel  be  denied  the  like  privilege] 
Their  request  was  as  plausible  as  that  of  any  other 
people;  and  impartiality  toward  his  subjects,  requir- 
ed Pharaoh  to  grant  it.  But,  how  often,  alas !  un- 
der kingly,  papal  and  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  have 
idolaters  been  protected  in  their  "  abominable  idola- 
tries,"— and  antichristians,  in  the  observance  of  their 
popish  traditions,  while  the  spiritual  worshipers  of 
the  true  God  and  the  obedient  disciples  of  his  dear 
Son,  have  been  denied  the  rights  of  conscience,  and 
exposed,  not  only  to  the  power  of  lawless  mobs,  but 
also  to  the  consequences  of  legal  prosecutions ;  such 
as  imprisonment,  fines,  banishment,  nay,  death  itself. 
And  all  this  commonly  under  pretence  of  great  re- 
gard for  religious  purity ;  an  authorized  herald  pro- 
claiming, "It  is  commanded  that  ye  fall  down  and 
worship  the  golden  image;"  or  a  thousand  voices 
crying  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians ;"  or  a  sanc- 
timonious priesthood,  zealously  vociferating,  "The 
temple  of  the  Lord!  the  temple  of  the  Lord!"(tf) 
But,  to  precede. 

Pharaoh,  overcome  by  the  judgments  of  God  upon 
himself  and  his  nation,  at  length  consented  that  Israel 
should  depart,  and  that  without  imposing  any  stipu- 

*  See  Calmet's  Diet.  Vol.  iii.  Frag.  39.  Also,  Rees's  Cyclop, 
under  Caaba ;  and  comp.  Gen.  xxxvii.  27, 28.  (e)  Instead  of  citing 
human  authorities  to  prove  this,  I  refer  to  the  narratives  and  pre- 
dictions of  sacred  writ :  See  Dan.  iii.  15.  vii.  7.  Acts  xviii.  and 
xix.  chapters.  Heb.  x.  32 — 34.  Rev.  i.  9.  Gen.  iii,  15.  Is.  Ix, 
15.  Matt.  xxiv.  9.  2  Thess.  ii.  2—12.  Rev.  xiiL  1—8. 


12 

lation  or  reserve ;  nay,  both  he  and  his  people,  that 
they  might  suffer  no  further  on  their  account,  urged 
and  hastened  their  departure,  (f ) 

Here  a  transaction  took  place  between  the  Israelites 
and  the  Egyptians,  in  regard  to  which,  the  former 
have  been  charged  with  great  injustice  toward  the 
latter,  in  having  borrowed  of  them  many  valuable  ar- 
ticles without  intending  to  return  them ;  and  which 
our  translation,  copying  that  of  Becke,  published  in 
1549,  unhappily  very  much  countenances ;  and  by 
reason  of  which  illiterate  Christians  have  been  much 
perplexed  and  inveterate  infidels  greatly  imboldened. 
That  the  Israelites,  at  that  time,  obtained  many  valu- 
able articles  of  the  Egyptians,  and  that  they  did  not 
intend  to  return  them,  is  apparent  from  the  face  of 
the  history ;  but  that,  properly  speaking,  they  borrow- 
ed them,  is  not  supported  by  the  original,  and  that 
they  were  guilty  of  any  injustice  in  the  affair,  is  ren- 
dered utterly  inadmissible  by  obvious  facts. 

That  the  Israelites,  properly  speaking,  borrowed 
those  articles  of  the  Egyptians,  is  not  supported  by  the 
original.  Had  borrowing  and  lending,  in  the  ordinary 
acceptation  of  these  terms,  been  the  nature  of  the 
transaction,  we  have  much  reason  to  suppose  it  would 
have  been  noted  by  the  appropriate  word  rn1?  lavah ; 
(g)  whereas  the  word  employed  is  ^  shaal,  which 
primarily  and  principally  signifies  to  ask  by  way  of 
inquiring,  examining,  requiring  or  demanding ;  (Ji) 
and  though  it  occurs  in  the  Bible  more  than  eighty 
times,  yet  only  twice  as  meaning  to  borrow,  (i)  Be- 

(/)  Exo.  xii.  31—33.  (g)  Neh.  v.  4.  Deut.  xxviii.  12,  44. 
Psal.  xxxvii.  21  and  cxii.  5.  (h)  Gen.  xliii.  7 ;  xliv.  19.  Deut. 
iv.  22.  Josh.  xix.  50.  2  Sam.  xi.  7.  (i)  Exo.  xxii.  14.  (heb.  v. 
13.)  and  2  Kings  vi.  5. 


13 

sides,  it  is  used  where,  to  admit  the  idea  of  bor- 
rowing would  be  both  absurd  and  impious.  What, 
pray,  had  Job  to  lend  to  God  1  Yet  once  and  again, 
God  said  to  him,  •j'wffK  eshalcha,  /  demand  of  thee, 
&c.  (K)  That,  in  the  places  which  relate  the  oc- 
currence in  question,  (7)  this  word  signifies  to  ask 
or  demand,  is  the  concurrent  testimony  of,  confess- 
edly, the  best  versions,  both  ancient  and  modern. 
The  Syriac,  Chaldee,  Samaritan  and  Persian,  being 
in  this  place  the  same  as  the  Hebrew,  yield  indeed 
no  assistance  on  either  side.*  But  the  SEPTUAGINT 
has  airyitrsi  she  shall  ask;  and  the  Vulgate  has  POSTU- 
LABIT,  she  shall  demand.  Luther  renders  the  word 
by  fordern,  which  also  signifies  demand;  and  in 
the  Geneva  Bible  and  in  that  of  Barker,  published 
in  1615,  it  is  translated  ask. 

Nor  were  the  Israelites,  in  this  affair,  guilty  of 
any  injustice.  This  charge,  though  often  brought, 
is,  as  was  observed  before,  rendered  utterly  inad- 
missible by  obvious  facts.  God,  indeed,  said  to  Is- 
rael, a9<re  D  n«  nnV^j  nitsaltem  eth  mitzrayim ;  which 
we  translate,  "Ye  shall  spoil  the  Egyptians;"  but, 
as  to  SPOIL  primarily  signifies  to  plunder,  to  take  by 
rapine  or  violence,  the  original  word  ^  natsal  can- 
not, in  this  instance,  have  that  meaning ;  for  it  is 
manifest,  that  all  the  Israelites  obtained  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  latter,  moved  by  the  unknown  influ- 
ence of  God  upon  their  consciences,  and  without 
any  constraint  on  the  part  of  Israel,  readily  gave 
up  or  delivered  to  them.  In  this  way  only,  "they 
spoiled  the  Egyptians;"  (o)  or  stripped  them,  as 

(k)  Job  xxxviii.  3  and  xl.  7.  Comp.  Rom.  xi.  35.  (/)  Exo. 
iii.  22  ;  xi.  2;  xii.  35.  *  Lond.  Polyg.  (w)  Exo.  iii.  22.  (o)  Exo. 
xii.  36. 


14 

the  word  also  signifies,  (p)  This  word,  too,  is  the 
more  appropriate,  as  it  denotes  the  equity  of  the  trans- 
action ;  for  it  is  elsewhere  used  to  signify  the  recove- 
ry of  property  that  had  been  unlawfully  taken  away  : 
"  Because  they  went  not  with  us,  we  will  not  give 
them  ought  of  the  SPOIL  that  we  have  RECOVERED.*" 
And  to  this  sense  of  the  word,  the  case  before  us 
exactly  corresponds  ;  for,  in  this  event,  the  Israelites 
obtained  their  wages  long  withheld,  together  with 
their  freedom,  wrongfully  taken  away  by  the  Egyp- 
tians. They  had  served  the  Egyptians  more  than 
two  hundred  years,  and  much  of  that  time  under  the 
most  rigorous  oppression,  without  receiving  any  equi- 
valent ;  wherefore,  on  the  eve  of  their  departure,  God 
the  righteous  Judge,  determined  that  justice  should 
be  done  to  them,  constrained  their  oppressors  to 
compensate  them,  in  "such  things  as  they  required." 
So  this  transfer  of  property  from  the  Egyptians  to 
the  Israelites,  was  anciently  understood  by  Epipha- 
niw,who  reckoning  the  services  of  the  latter  to  have 
been  215  years,  asks  "Was  it  not  just  before  God 
and  man,  that  their  wages  should  be  paid  them  be- 
fore they  left  the  country  1"f  And  the  same  judg- 
ment on  the  case  was  given  by  the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Wisdom,  who  speaks  of  it  as  an  instance 
in  which  Wisdom  rendered  to  the  righteous,  the  re- 
ward of  their  labor  s.^  On  this  article,  I  beg  leave 
to  add  a  story  contained  in  the  Gemara,  which, 
true  or  false,  serves  happily  to  illustrate  the  fact 
under  consideration.  It  runs  thus:  —  In  the  time 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  the  Egyptians  brought  an 


(p)  Exo.  xxxiii  6.     *  l^VD  TOK  esher  hitzalnu.     1  Sam.  xxx. 

22.      f  XK  rjv  hKaiov  KOI  vapa  0c»  KCLI  av0/>«;rot?,  &C.     ApCOratUS,  Num.  Cxii- 

cxiii.    |  Chap.  x.  17. 


15 

action  against  the  Israelites,  demanding  the  land  of 
Canaan,  in  satisfaction  for  what  they  had  borrowed 
of  them  when  they  went  out  of  Egypt.  Gibeah  ben 
Kosam,  who  was  advocate  for  the  Jews,  replied, 
that  before  they  could  sustain  this  demand,  they  must 
prove  what  they  alleged,  namely,  that  the  Israelites 
had  really  borrowed  such  and  such  things  of  the 
Egyptians. 

The  Egyptians  thought  it  sufficient  to  refer  the 
Jews  to  the  account  of  the  matter  in  their  own  books. 
Well  then,  said  the  advocate,  look  into  the  same  books 
and  you  will  find  that  the  children  of  Israel  lived  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  in  Egypt  ;*  Pay  us  for  all 

*  By  thus  making  an  advantage  of  the  opposit  party's  igno- 
rance of  the  law,  the  Jewish  advocate,  it  is  true,  rendered  his 
argument  the  more  overwhelming  and  silencing ;  but  he  was  as 
disingenuous  in  his  retort,  as  the  Egyptians  were  in  their  charge ; 
for  he  must  have  well  known,  that  the  books  referred  to,  no  where 
state  that  the  children  of  Israel  lived  430  years  in  Egypt,  but 
only  that  "  the  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel,  who  dwelt  in 
Egypt)  was  430  years  ;"  Exo.  xii.  40 ;  which  must  necessarily  be 
understood  to  include  the  sojourning  of  their  ancestors,  (to  wit, 
that  of  Abram  from  the  time  of  his  calling  till  he  entered  Canaan, 
commonly  estimated  at  five  years,  and  that  of  him  and  his  posteri- 
ty in  Canaan,  Gen.  xxxvii.  1,  which,  though  promised  to  his  seed, 
was  not  transferred,  and  which,  therefore,  was  to  them  a  strange 
land,  wherein  they  were  evil  treated,)  as  well  as  their  own  so- 
journing in  Egypt,  after  Jacob's  descent  thither.  Accordingly, 
both  in  the  Samaritan  Version  and  in  the  Alexandrian  copy  of  the 
Septuagint,  which  many  learned  men  esteem  the  purest  records 
of  the  Pentateuch,  this  chronicle  reads  thus;  "Now  the  sojourn- 
ing of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  of  their  fathers,  which  they 
sojourned  in  the  land  of  Canaan  and  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  was 
430  years."  And  that  this  has  been  the  current  opinion  among 
the  Jews,  is  plain  from  both  their  Talmuds;  one  reading  "  in  Egypt 
and  in  all  lands ;"  T.  Hieros.  Megillah,  fol.  71, 4 ;  arid  the  other, "  in 
Egypt  and  in  the  rest  of  the  lands."  T.  Bab.  Megillah,  fol.  9, 1. 

Thus  understood,  the  chronology  is  clearly  demonstrable.  From 


16 

the  labor  and  toil  of  so  many  thousand  people  as 
you  employed  all  that  time,  and  we  will  restore  what, 
(as  you  say)  we  borrowed.  To  which  the  Egyptians 
had  not  a  word  to  answer. 

But  (this  story  aside,)  we  leave  even  the  candid 
infidel  to  judge  whether  his  brethren  are  not  guilty  of 
great  injustice  to  the  sacred  history,  when  they  sayy 
"  Moses  represents  the  just  God  as  ordering  the  Is- 
raelites to  borrow  the  goods  of  the  Egyptians  under 
the  pretence  of  returning  them,  whereas  he  intended 


the  time  of  Abram's  call  to  leave  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, till  he  entered  Canaan,  we  compute  to  have  been  five 
years ;  [Gen.  xi.  31  and  xii.  1,  compared  with  Acts  vii.  2,  3 ;] 
from  his  entrance  into  Canaan,  till  the  birth  of  Isaac,  we  know 
was  twenty-five  years ;  [Gen.  xii.  4  and  xxi.  5 ;]  Isaac  was  sixty 
years  old  when  Jacob  was  born ;  [Gen.  xxv.  26 ;]  and  Jacob  was 
a  hundred  and  thirty  years  old  when  he  went  into  Egypt.  [Gen. 
xlvii.  9.]  These  four  periods  together  make  220  years ;  and  ad- 
ding to  these,  the  210  years,  which  all  Jewish  writers  of  note  say 
their  nation  sojourned  in  Egypt,  we  have  the  exact  number  of  430 
years ;  at  the  expiration  of  which,  "  even  the  self-same  day — all  the 
hosts  of  the  Lord  went  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt."  Exo.  xii.  41. 
In  nearly  the  same  manner,  the  apostle  Paul  seems  to  have  calcu- 
lated these  years  ;  that  is,  from  the  giving  of  the  promise  to  Abram, 
which  was  at  the  time  of  his  calling,  [Gen.  xii.  1 — 3,]  to  the  de- 
livery of  the  law  on  Sinai ;  and  which  term,  though  it  included  a 
few  weeks  more,  [Exo.  xix.  1.]  he  expresses  by  the  round  number 
of  430  years.  Gal.  iii.  17.  And,  as  serving  at  once  to  confirm 
the  calculation  just  made,  and  to  reconcile  what  infidels  call  a 
contradiction,  let  it  be  recollected,  that,  in  the  sense  of  the  pro- 
mise, Abraham  had  no  seed  till  Isaac  was  born,  in  whom  his  seed 
was  to  be  called ;  [Gen.  xxi.  12.]  and  that,  deducting  his  own 
journeying  of  five  years  at  Haran  and  twenty-five  more  in  Ca- 
naan, before  Isaac's  birth,  it  will  plainly  appear,  that  the  sojourn- 
ing and  affliction  of  his  seed  in  a  strange  land,  alike  true  of  Ca- 
naan and  of  Egypt,  was  exactly  400  years.  See  Gen.  xv.  13  and 
Acts  vii.  6. 


17 

i 

that  they  should  march  off  with  the  booty."  For  so 
far  is  this  from  being  true,  that  there  was  no  borrow- 
ing in  the  case ;  and,  as  Dr.  Clark  justly  observes, 
"  If  accounts  were  fairly  balanced,  Egypt  would  be 
found  still  in  considerable  arrears  to  Israel"  Leav- 
ing this  matter,  we  advance  with  the  inspired  narra- 
tive. 

God  having  compelled  Pharaoh  to  release  the  Is- 
raelites, and  the  Egyptians,  to  pay  them,  in  some 
measure,  for  their  services,  they  commenced  their  ex- 
odus.    "And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed  from 
Rameses  to  Succoth."  (n)    Rameses,  we  know,  was 
another  name  for  the  land  of  Goshen  ;  (o)  yet  here  it 
seems  rather  to  denote  a  city,  and  probably  the  trea- 
sure city  of  this  name,  which  the  Israelites  had  built 
for  Pharaoh ;  (p)  at  or  near  which,  they  rendezvous- 
ed preparatory  to  their  departure;  and  Sitccoth,  which 
signifies  booths,  tents,  or  tabernacles,  no  doubt,  had 
its  name  from  their  encampment  there,  in  such  ac- 
commodations ;  it  having,  till  then,  been  a  nameless 
spot  in  the  desert.     Here,  supplied  with  water  from 
the  fountain  now  called  the  Pilgrim's  Pool,  and  hav- 
ing convenient  pasturage  for  their  flocks  and  herds, 
they  waited  till  joined  by  those  of  their  brethren  who, 
on  receiving  notice  of  their  design,  had  to  come  from 
distant  parts  of  the  land.*     For  this  purpose,  they 
might  find  it  necessary  to  tarry  a  week  or  two,  or  per- 
haps a  month ;  for  although,  by  the  direct  way,  it  was 
but  three  ordinary  days  journey  from  thence  to  the 
wilderness  of  Sinai,  yet,  by  reason  of  a  circuitous 
route  and  indispensable  delays,  (of  which  this  might 
be  the  principal  one,)  they  did  not  arrive  there  till  in 

(w)Exo.xii.37.  (o).Gen.xlvii.6,ll,27.  £p)Exo.i.  11.  *Forthe 
probability  of  this,  see  Calinet's  Diet.  vol.  iii.  Frag.  39. 

3 


18 

« 

the  third  month  of  their  pilgrimage,  (q)     During 
this  stay,  they  also  procured  the  bones  of  Joseph, 
without  which  it  would  have  been  perjury  in  them  to 
leave  Egypt.     For  although  Egypt  was  indebted  to 
Joseph,  as  the  instrument,  for  its  preservation  from 
the  ravages  of  famine,  and  for  most  of  its  subse- 
quent policy  and  opulence,  it  was,  nevertheless,  a 
country  so  undesirable  to  him,  that  he  sought  no  per- 
manent inheritance  in  it,  either  for  himself  or  his 
family ;  nay,  such  was  his  holy  contempt  of  it,  that  by 
the  last  act  of  his  life,  he  solemnly  adjured  his 
brethren  not  even  to  leave  his  remains  there :  yes, 
in  the  full  assurance  of  faith  that  God,  according  to 
his  promise,  would  visit  and  deliver  them,  Joseph, 
just  before  he  died  "  Took  an  oath  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  saying,  God  will  surely  visit  you,  and  ye  shall 
carry  up  my  bones  from  hence."  (r)     This  instance 
of  faith  in  Joseph,  is  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of 
an  apostle :  "  By  faith  Joseph,  when  he  died,  made 
mention  of  the  departing  of  the  children  of  Israel ; 
and  gave  commandment  concerning  his  bones."  (s) 

Accordingly,  "Moses  took  the  bones  of  Joseph 
with  him,  and  they  (the  Israelites)  took  their  journey 
from  Succoth,  and  encamped  in  Etham,  in  the  edge  of 
the  wilderness ;"  that  is  the  wilderness  of  Etham,  and 
which  bears  the  same  name,  on  both  sides  of  the  Red 
sea.  (i)  A  part  of  it  is  also  called  "the  wilderness  of 
Shur."  (u)  According  to  Bunting's  computation,  it  is 
eight  miles  from  Rameses  to  Succoth,  and  the  same 
distance  from  thence  to  Etham.* 

Here  it  becomes  requisite  to  notice,  that  the  route 


(q)  Exo.  xix.  1.    (r)  Gen.  1.  25.     (s)  Heb.  xi.  22.     (t)  Exo.  xiii. 
19.     Numbers  xxxiii.  8.     (u)  Exo.  xv.  22.    *  Travels,  Page  81. 


19 

of  the  Israelites  depended  not  on  their  own  choice 
but  the  choice  of  God ;  and  that  the  one  which  he 
chose  for  them  was  the  safest,  though  not  the  short- 
est, to  the  promised  land.  In  favour  to  them,  "God 
led  them  not  through  the  land  of  the  Philistines, 
though  that  was  near;"  lest  seeing  war,  in  which 
they  were  yet  inexperienced,  they  should  be  tempted 
to  "return  to  Egypt;  but  God  led  them  through  the 
way  of  the  wilderness  of  the  Red  sea :  and  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  went  up  harnessed,"  not  with  armor, 
but  with  girdles  and  in  regular  squadrons,  "out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt."  (w)  The  manner,  too,  in  which 
they  enjoyed  the  divine  leading,  is  expressly  record- 
ed :  "  The  Lord  went  before  them  by  day  in  a  pillar 
of  cloud,  and  led  them  in  the  way  ;  and  by  night  in  a 
pillar  of  fire  to  give  them  light :  to  go  by  day  and  by 
night.  He  took  not  away  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  by 
day,  nor  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  from  before  the 
people."  (x)  Thus  led,  they  left  Etham,  probably 
expecting  in  a  few  days  to  reach  Horeb  :  but,  lo ! 
the  cloud  turns  another  way,  and  the  voice  of  the 
Lord,  preceding  from  it,  comes  to  Moses,  saying, 
"  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  TURN" 
short  off  to  the  right,  "  and  encamp  before  Pi-ha-hi- 
roth,*  between  Migdol  and  the  sea,  over  against 
Baal-zephon."  (y)  How  strange  this  order!  In  the 
way  they  were  taking,  there  was  no  garrison  to  mo- 
lest them — no  sea  to  obstruct  their  passage.  Truly 
God's  thoughts  are  not  our  thoughts,  nor  his  ways 
our  ways.  Designing  typically  to  illustrate  two  im- 
portant facts,  namely,  that  salvation  is  of  the  Lord, 


(w)  Exo.  xiii.  17, 18.  comp.  Psal.  cvii.  2 — 7.  (x)  Exo.  xiii.  21, 
22.  *  Sixteen  miles  from  Etham.  Bunting's  Travels,  p.  82.  (y) 
Exo.  xiv.  1. 


20 

and  that  the  destruction  of  those  who  perish  is  of 
themselves,  he  brought  Israel  into  straits,  from  which 
none  but  himself  could  deliver  them,  and  left  Pha- 
raoh to  follow  the  dictates  of  his  carnal  reason  and 
the  passions  of  his  corrupt  nature,  to  his  own  con- 
fusion and  ruin. 

Justly  to  conceive  of  the  straits  into  which  God 
brought  Israel,  we  must  consider  the  relations  of  the 
place  in  which,  by  his  order,  they  were  encamped. 
Hiroth  (properly  Chiroth,rrrn,)  was  the  original  name 
of  a  valley  or  gullet,  along  which  the  Israelites  pass- 
ed in  going  from  Etham  toward  the  Red  sea.*  This 
was  the  conclusion  at  which  the  learned  and  labori- 
ous Dr.  Shaw  arrived,  by  examining  the  place  itself 
and  the  traditions  of  the  Arabs  respecting  the  matter 
in  question.f  Consequently,  by  the  compound  word 
Pi-hahiroth,  the  mouth  of  the  chiroth,  must  be  meant 
the  mouth  or  opening  of  that  Valley  on  or  near  the 
banks  of  the  sea.  A  little  short  of  this  opening,  on 
their  left,  stood  Migdol,  the  Tower,  no  doubt  a  for- 
tress strongly  garrisoned  ;  and  a  little  ahead,  on  their 
right,  appeared  Baal-zephon,  probably  a  temple  or 
a  fortress,  in  which  stood  a  conspicuous  image  of 
Baal,  to  signify  that  he  presided  over  it  and  over  the 
garrison  stationed  there ;  nay,  over  all  the  fortresses 
and  garrisons  of  Egypt ;  the  word  signifying  The 
Lord  or  Master  of  the  watch.  This  is  the  more  pro- 
bable, as  in  destroying  the  Egyptians,  the  Lord  also 
executed  judgment  upon  their  gods ;  thus  showing 
them  to  be  lying  vanities,  and  utterly  unable  to  pro- 
tect their  worshipers,  (z) 

*  This  gullet,  the  Arabs  call  Tiah  beni  Israel,  the  road  of  the 
children  of  Israel;  and  Baideali,  in  memory  of  the" miracle 
wrought  near  it.  t  See  his  travels,  p.  307,  309, 2d  ed.  (z)  Exo. 
xii.  12.  Num.  xxxiii.  4. 


21 

Informed  that  the  Israelites  were  thus  environed, 
and  ignorant  of  the  divine  direction  by  which  they 
were  so  situated,  Pharaoh  seems  to  have  thought  they 
had  lost  their  way:  he  said  "They  are  entangled 
in  the  land,  the  wilderness  hath  shut  them  in ;"  and, 
in  the  hardness  of  his  heart  he  pursued  them  with 
all  his  forces,  resolved,  it  should  seem,  if  they  utter- 
ly refused  to  return  to  his  service,  either  to  cut  them 
off  by  his  arms,  or  to  starve  them  to  death  by  a  block- 
ade, (a)  How  exposed  and  distressing  was  their 
condition !  With  no  means  of  defence,  they  had 
Pharaoh  and  his  armed  host  in  close  pursuit  of 
them ;  encumbered  with  children  and  superannuated 
men  and  women,  and  shut  in  on  each  side  by  an 
Egyptian  fortress,  to  escape  was  impracticable  ;  and 
having  the  Red  sea  immediately  before  them,  with- 
out a  single  boat  or  transport  of  any  kind  prepared 
for  their  passage,  to  advance  was  equally  impossible. 
In  this  extremity,  convinced  that  nothing  but  divine 
power  could  deliver  them,  "the  children  of  Israel 
CRIED  OUT  unto  the  LORD."  (ft)  And  Moses,  though 
they,  at  least  many  of  them,  murmured  against  him, 
said  unto  the  people,  "  Fear  not,  STAND  STILL  (for 
what  else  could  they  do?)  and  see  THE  SALVATION 
of  the  LORD — the  Lord  shall  fight  for  you,  and  ye 
shall  hold  your  peace.  And,"  the  appointed  time" 
having  arrived,  "the  Lord  said  unto  Moses — Speak 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward. 
But  (that  they  might  go  forward)  lift  thou  up  thy 
rod,"  the  same  by  which  such  wonders  had  been 
wrought  before,  "and  stretch  out  thine  hand  over  the 
sea,  and  divide  it."  Astonishing  command !  But  is 
any  thing  too  hard  for  the  LORD  to  do  ]  For  their 

(a)  Exo.  xiv.  5—9.     (b)  Ibid.  ver.  10. 


safety  in  the  meantime,  "the  Angel  of  God,  which 
(ordinarily)  went  before  the  camp  of  Israel,  removed 
and  went  behind  them ;  and  the  pillar  of  the  cloud," 
the  visible  symbol  of  the  Angel's  presence,  "  came 
between  the  camp  of  the  Egyptians  and  the  camp  of 
Israel :  and  it  was  a  cloud  of  darkness  to  those,  but  it 
gave  light  by  night  to  these:  so  that  the  one  came  not 
near  the  other  all  the  night.  And  Moses,"  obedient 
to  the  divine  command,  "  stretched  out  his  hand," 
with  the  rod  in  it,  "  over  the  sea,  and  the  LORD  (not 
Moses)  caused  the  sea  to  go  back  by  a  strong  east 
wind,"  a  miraculous  current  of  it  blowing  across  that 
particular  part  of  the  sea,  "  all  night ;"  by  means  of 
which  its  waters  were  divided,  and  its  bed  dried  and 
rendered  passable ;  so  that,  before  morning,  "  the 
children  of  Israel  went  into  the  midst  of  the  sea,"  that 
is,  across  the  very  channel  of  it,  "  upon  dry  ground ; 
the  waters"  thereof,  which  had  been  their  obstacle 
and  their  dread,  becoming  "  a  wall"  of  defence  "  unto 
them,  on  their  right  hand  and  on  their  left."  The  in- 
fatuated Egyptians  pursued  them,  even  into  the  midst 
of  the  sea ;  where,  to  their  inconceivable  perplexity, 
they  soon  found  that  the  Lord  still  fought  for  Israel, 
and  would  have  fled ;  but  while  in  the  attempt,  Moses, 
divinely  commanded,  stretched  out  his  hand  again, 
and  the  waters  returned  and  overwhelmed  them.  Thus 
"the  LORD  saved  Israel ;"  yet  by  the  hand  of  Moses ; 
"and  the  people  feared  the  Lord,  and  believed  the 
Lord  and  his  servant  Moses,  (c)  Nor  should  it  be 
forgotten,  that  the  people  whom  God,  in  his  mercy,  led 
forth  and  thereby  delivered  from  Egyptian  bondage, 
were  identically  and  numerically  the  same  whom  he 
had  redeemed  by  the  paschal  sacrifice,  (d) 

(c)  Exo.  xiv.  19-31.    (d)  Ibid.  xv.  13. 


23 

Here,  for  a  little,  they  suspended  their  journey, 
while  in  the  use  of  two  inspired  songs,  one  by  Moses 
and  the  other  by  Miriam,  they  celebrated  the  praises 
of  God  for  their  great  deliverance,  (e) 

Their  respite,  however,  was  very  short:  "Moses 
brought  Israel  from  the  Red  sea,  and  they  went  out 
into  the  wilderness  of  Shur,"  the  same  with  the  wil- 
derness of  Etham ;  (f )  "  and  they  went  three  days 
in  the  wilderness,  and  found  no  water."  A  great  trial 
both  to  faith  and  to  sense !  And,  as  if  to  aggravate 
their  affliction,  when  they  found  water,  it  was  such 
as  they  could  not  use;  "when  they  came  to  Marah, 
(a  place  afterward  known  by  this  name,)  they  could 
not  drink  of  its  waters  for  they  were  bitter."  And 
bitter  indeed  they  must  have  been  when  intolerable  to 
persons  suffering  for  drink!  "Wherefore  the  name 
of  it  is  called  Marah,  bitterness."  Here  again,  Moses, 
though  the  object  of  their  murmuring,  was  the  instru- 
ment of  their  relief:  "He  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and 
the  Lord  showed  him  a  tree,  which  when  he  had  cast 
into  the  waters,  the  waters  were  made  sweet."  (g) 

Thence  "  they  came  to  Elim,  where  were  twelve 
wells  of  water  and  threescore  and  ten  palm-trees ;  and 
they  encamped  there  by  the  waters."  (A)  A  pleasant 
encampment;  but  of  short  duration. 

For  in  the  very  next  chapter,  we  find  them, in  "the 
wilderness  of  Sin,"  (the  name  of  a  desert  between 
Elim  and  Sinai,*)  destitute  of  bread,  and  murmuring, 
not  only  against  Moses  and  Aaron  but  also  against  the 
Lord  himself;  nay,  commending  their  condition  in 
Egypt  and  regretting  that  they  had  left  it.  "  Then 

(e)  Exo.  xv.  from  the  1 — 25  verse.  (/)  Num.  xxiii.  8.  (g)  Exo. 
xv.  22—25.  (h)  Ibid.  ver.  27. 


24 

the  Lord  said  to  Moses,  Behold,  I  will  rain  bread  from 
heaven  for  you,"  meaning  the  manna ;  of  which,  as  a 
trial  of  their  faith  and  obedience,  the  people  were  to 
gather  daily  a  requisite  quantity,  and  on  the  sixth  day, 
preparatory  to  the  Sabbath,  a  double  portion.  The 
daily  gathering  of  each  was  to  be  an  omer,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Cumberland,  is  three  quarts ;  and 
which  being  made  into  bread,  must  have  been  an 
ample  supply  for  the  sustenance  of  an  individual.* 
The  Lord  also  promised  to  give  them  flesh  to  eat. 
In  both  he  fulfilled  his  word ;  and  the  manna  was 
continued  "  until  they  came  unto  the  borders  of  the 
land  of  Canaan."  Yet,  in  the  duty  of  gathering  it, 
they  discovered  much  unbelief  and  disobedience ;  (i) 
and  in  the  privilege  of  using  it,  much  irreverence  and 
ingratitude,  saying,  "  There  is  nothing  at  all,  besides 
this  manna,  before  our  eyes,"  and  "  our  soul  loatheth 
this  light  bread"  (K) 

How  rapid  was  the  succession  of  their  troubles !  In 
Rephidim,  though  their  journey  thither  was  "accord- 
ing to  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,"  we  find  them 
a  second  time  in  distress  for  the  want  of  water.  And, 
instead  of  being  suitably  humbled  on  account  of  their 
former  sins  and  entreating  Moses  to  use,  as  he  had  so 
often  and  so  successfully  done,  his  interest  with  the 
Lord  on  their  behalf,  they  tempted  the  Lord,  by  sug- 
gesting that  he  was  not  (according  to  his  promise) 
with  them,  or  that  he  was  either  unwilling,  or,  in  that 


*  What  a  vast  quantity  must  have  fallen  every  day,  to  supply  so 
many !  It  has  been  reckoned  at  94,460  bushels  ;  and  which,  during 
the  40  years  it  was  continued,  amounted  to  1,379,203,600  bushels. 
Scheuchzer,  Physic.  Sacra,  vol.  2.  p.  177,  178.  (i)  Exo.  xvi.  ch. 
(k)  Num.  xi.  6.  xxi.  5. 


25 

sandy  waste,  unable,  to  supply  them  with  water  ;  and 
hence,  chid  with  Moses,  for  bringing  them  thither. 
How  merciful  the  Lord !    how  meek  his  servant ! 
Moses,  notwithstanding  all  their  ill  treatment  of  him, 
"  cried  unto  the  Lord,  saying,  What  shall  I  do  unto 
this  people  '\     They  be  almost  ready  to  stone  me  :" 
And  the  Lord,"  whose  goodness  is  sovereign  as  well 
as  abundant,  "  said  unto  Moses,  Go  on  before  the 
people,  and  take  with  thee,"  as  witnesses  of  the  in- 
tended miracle,  "the  elders  of  Israel :  and  thy  rod 
wherewith  thou  smotest  the  river,*  take  in  thine  hand 
and  go.     Behold  I  will  stand  before  thee,"  in  the 
cloud,  the  symbol  of  his  presence, "  upon  the  rock  in 
Horeb,"  the  rock  which  he  had  chosen  for  that  pur- 
pose, "  and  thou  shalt  smite  the  rock,"  with  the  rod, 
"  and  there  shall  come  water  out  of  it,  that  the  people 
may  drink.    And  Moses  did  so  in  the  sight  of  the  el- 
ders of  Israel.     And  he  (probably  Moses)  called  the 
name  of  the  place  Massah,"  temptation,  "  and  Meri- 
bah,"  strife  or  chiding ;  the  latter,  "  because  of  the 
chiding  of  the  children  of  Israel,"  and  the  former, 
"  because  they  tempted  the  Lord,  saying,  Is  the  Lord 
among  us,  or  not  1"  (Z)     This  happened  early  in  the 
first  year  of  their  pilgrimage ;  and  about  39  years 
later,  in  the  first  month  of  the  fortieth  year  after  their 
exodus  from  Egypt,  another  very  similar  instance  oc- 
curred among  them  ;  in  which  the  then  existing  gene- 
ration proved  themselves  to  have  inherited  all  the  un- 
belief, ingratitude  and  rebelion  of  their  fore-fathers  ; 
and  in  which,  though  the  power  and  goodness  of  the 


*  Either  that  in  Egypt ;  Exo.  vii.  20 ;  or  the  Red  sea ;  that 
arm  of  it  which  he  smote  being  comparable  to  a  river.  (/)  Exo. 
xvii.  1 — 7.  and  Psal.  Ixxxi.  7. 

4 


26 

Lord  were  evinced  to  be  unchanged,  the  meekness 
of  Moses  failed,  and  the  faith,  both  of  him  and  of  Aa- 
ron, faltered ;  and  for  which  they  were  denied  the 
honor  of  bringing  Israel  into  Canaan,  or  of  entering 
that  land  themselves,  (in)  That  this  event  was  not 
the  same  that  is  recorded  in  the  seventeenth  chapter 
of  Exodus,  is  evident ;  Sin  and  Zin  being  different 
wildernesses,  and  Rephidim  and  Kadesh,  different 
places,  and  at  considerable  distance  from  each 
other,  (n)  But,  to  return  : 

No  sooner  were  the  Israelites  supplied  with  water, 
than  they  were  assailed  by  a  formidable  enemy. 
"  Then  came  Amalek,"*  a  sort  of  vagrant  ruler  com- 

(m)  Num.  xx.  1 — 13,  and  from  24 — 29,  and  xxviii.  12 — 14. 
Deut.  iii.  23 — 27,  and  xxxiv.  5.  (n)  Num.  xxxviii.  11,  14,  36. 

*  Commonly  understood  to  mean  the  Amalekites  collectively  ;  but 
whereas,  in  ver.  13,  mention  is  made  of  "  Amalek  and  his  people," 
I  understand  Amalek  to  have  been  a  name  or  title  common  to  the 
kings  of  that  people,  as  Pharaoh  was  to  the  kings  of  Egypt.  To 
interpret  "  Amalek  and  his  people,"  as  many  do,  of  the  Amalekites 
and  their  confederates,  seems  to  me  forced  and  awkward. 

Nor  were  these  Amalekites  (as  generally  supposed)  the  de- 
scendants of  Amalek,  the  grandson  of  Esau,  mentioned  Gen. 
xxxvi.  12 ;  but  of  some  other  AmaJek,  who  lived  much  earlier, 
and  whose  posterity  were  a  numerous  and  warlike  people  in 
the  time  of  Abram  ;  Genesis  xiv.  7,  compare  Numbers  xxiv. 
20.  Moses  does  rot,  that  I  can  find,  give  any  account  of 
their  extraction ;  but  the  Arabian  writers,  according  to  Reland, 
represent  them  to  have  descended  from  Ham,  and  probably  in  the 
line  of  Cush.  If  so,  though  not  Canaanites,  they  were,  (accord- 
ing to  the  stile  of  Scripture,)  their  brethren,  and  may  well  be 
thought  to  have  been  confederate  with  them,  for  mutual  preserva- 
tion. Hence,  on  hearing  that  the  Israelites  were  on  their  way  to 
take  possession  of  Canaan,  they  sallied  forth  against  them,  and, 
according  to  Deut.  xxv.  18,  cut  of  the  hindmost  of  them.  Pro- 
bably, too,  they  had  heard  of  the  treasure  which  the  Israelites 
brought  out  of  Egypt,  and  intended  to  take  it  from  them.  Their 


27 

mantling  a  numerous  host  of  similar  character,  "  and 
fought  with  Israel  in  Rephidim."  Here  again,  the 
miraculous  agency  of  Moses  was  eminently  manifest- 
ed. Having  given  directions  in  regard  to  the  battle, 
he  with  "  the  rod  of  God"  in  his  hand,  ascended  a 
chosen  hill ;  and  while,  in  either  of  his  hands,  he  held 
up  the  rod,  Israel  prevailed,  and  when  he  let  it  down 
Amalek  prevailed  ;  and  his  hands  through  weariness, 
becoming  heavy,  "  Aaron  and  Hur,"  one  on  each 
side  of  him,  "  stayed  them  up,"  and  they  were  "  steady 
until  the  going  down  of  the  sun."  Hence  during  the 
day,  Joshua,  to  whom  Moses  had  confided  the  man- 
agement of  the  battle,  "  discomfited  Amalek  and  his 
people  with  the  edge  of  the  sword."*  The  Lord 
having  doomed  the  name  of  Amalek  to  obliteration, 
and  authorized  perpetual  war  against  him,  for  that 
purpose,  commanded  Moses  to  write  it  for  a  memori- 
al and  to  rehearse  it  in  the  ears  of  Joshua,  under 
whom  that  war,  in  Canaan,  was  chiefly  to  be  conduct- 
ed. Moreover,  Moses  built  an  Altar  and  called  the 
name  of  it  JEHOVAH  Nissi,  the  Lord  is  my  banner,  (o) 


unprovoked  attack  upon  Israel,  however,  was  so  offensive  to  God, 
that  he  threatened  "  utterly  to  put  out  the  remembrance  of  them 
from  under  heaven,"  and  that,  for  this  purpose,  he  would  cause 
the  Israelites  to  be  at  "  war  with  them  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion." Exo.  xvii.  14 — 16.  Of  this  the  Israelites  were  reminded, 
Deut.  xxv.  17 — 19.  Successive  instances  of  this  war  are  also 
upon  record. — See  1  S-am.  xiv.  48  and  xv.  2,  &c.  xxvii.  8 ;  xxx. 
1,  J7 — 20,  and  1  Chron.  iv.  43.  But  as  they  were  not  Canaanites, 
and  as  their  land  (if  indeed  they  possessed  any)  was  not  given  to 
the  Israelites,  I  shall  pursue  their  history  no  further. 

*  Their  armor,  no  doubt,  the  Israelites  procured  by  stripping 
the  armed  Egyptians,  whom  they  found  dead  on  the  sea-shore. 
Exo.  xiv.  30.  (o)  xvii.  8—16. 


28 

Under  Moses,  too,  and  amid  unquestionable  evi- 
dences of  his  intercourse  with  God,  the  Israelites 
enjoyed  their  signal  victories  over  the  two  kings  of 
the  Amorites,  Sihon  and  Og  ;  and  were  avenged  of 
the  Midianites,  for  the  injuries  done  them,  and  of 
Balaam,  a  great  promoter  of  those  injuries,  (p) 

Another  and  a  very  remarkable  instance  of  the  use- 
fulness of  Moses  to  Israel,  occurred  when  in  compass- 
ing the  land  of  Edom,  "  the  soul  of  the  people  was 
much  discouraged  because  of  the  way  ;"  the  rough- 
ness of  the  road,  their  retrograde  course,  and  espe- 
cially the  barrenness  of  the  country  through  which 
they  had  to  pass.  Then,  as  on  former  occasions,  the 
people  spake  against  God  and  against  Moses ;"  re- 
gretted that  they  had  left  Egypt,  and  despised  the 
manna,  as  light  food.  "  And  the  Lord,"  to  convince 
them  of  their  sin  and  of  their  entire  dependence  up- 
on his  favour,  "  sent  serpents  among  them,  which  bit 
them,  and  much  people  of  Israel  died.  The  end  de- 
signed was  answered  ;  "  Therefore  the  people  came 
to  Moses,  and  said,  We  have  sinned:  for  we  have 
spoken  against  the  Lord  and  against  thee :  Pray  un- 
to the  Lord,  that  he  take  away  the  serpents  from  us." 
How  sensible  were  they  now,  that  their  life  depend- 
ed on  the  mere  mercy  of  God ;  and  that,  being  rebels 
against  him,  they  had  no  ground  of  hope  but  in  the 
mediation  of  Moses.  "And  Moses,"  their  constant 
and  ever  availing  friend  and  intercessor,  "  prayed  for 
the  people."  And  the  Lord,  though  he  did  not  im* 
mediately  "  take  away  the  serpents,"  as  they  had  re- 
quested ;  yet  prescribed,  through  Moses,  an  effectu- 
al remedy  against  their  deadly  poison :  "  The  Lord 
said  unto  Moses,  Make  thee  a  fiery  serpent,"  one  si- 

(/>)  Num  xxi.  21 — 35  and  xxxi.  1—8.  comp.  2  Pet.  ii.  15,  16. 

and  Jude,  ver.  11. 


29 

milar  in  appearance  to  those  sent,  but  free  from  their 
venom,  "  and  set  it  upon  a  pole,"  exposed  to  public 
view ;  "  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  every  one  that 
is  bitten,  when  he  looketh  upon  it  shall  live.  And 
Moses,"  obedient  to  the  divine  direction,  "  made  a 
serpent  of  brass  ;"  a  suitable  material  for  the  purpose ; 
for  being  burnished  and  exposed  to  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  it  acquired  the  resemblance  designed ;  "  and  it 
came  to  pass,"  as  the  Lord  had  promised,  "  that  if  a 
serpent  had  bitten  any  man,  when  he  beheld  the  ser- 
pent of  brass,  he  lived,"  he  was  healed  and  happy,  (q) 

The  instrumentality  of  Moses,  in  favour  of  Israel, 
was  very  conspicuous  in  the  delivery  of  the  law  to 
them  ;  but  as  this  will  be  embraced  in  following  dis- 
courses, we  only  mention  it  now. 

A  circumstance,  however,  occurred  in  connexion 
with  the  delivery  of  the  law,  which  claims  present  and 
special  notice  ;  and  in  which  Moses  was  eminently  a 
blessing  to  Israel.  During  his  first  stay  of  forty  days 
and  nights  with  God  in  the  mount,*  the  Israelites  fell 
into  "  a  great  sin,"  that  of  idolatry  ;  they  made  and 
worshiped  a  calf.  Hereupon,  the  wrath  of  God  broke 
out  against  them — all  were  in  danger  of  immediate 
death ;  yet,  through  the  mediation  of  Moses,  who 
plead  the  honor,  the  promise  and  the  oath  of  God  in 
their  favor,  and  tendered  his  own  life  for  their  ran- 
som, they  were  reprieved,  and  the  destroying  judg- 
ment was  stayed ;  after,  by  the  divine  order,  three 


(q)  Num.  xxi.  9.  *  Moses  went  into  the  mount  three  several 
times ;  and  twice  certainly,  and  probably  thrice,  stayed  there  forty 
days  and  nights.  See  Exo.  xxiv.  18 ;  xxxiv.  28.  Deut.  ix.  9, 18, 
25;  and  Dr.  Lightfoot's  Works,  Vol.  1,  p.  715,  716. 


30 

thousand,  as  an  example  and  warning  to  the  nation, 
were  cut  off  by  the  sword  of  the  Levites.  (r) 

To  show,  however,  that  it  is  only  through  the  me- 
diation of  HIM,  of  whom  Moses  was  but  a  type,  that 
sin  is  so  forgiven  as  not  to  be  remembered,  (s)  there 
was,  in  that  case,  a  remembrance  of  it.  "  Neverthe- 
less," said  God  to  Moses,  "  in  the  day  when  I  visit,  I 
will  visit  their  sin,"  their  idolatry,  "  upon  them."  (t) 
Hence  that  metaphorical  saying  among  the  Jews ; 
"  No  affliction  has  ever  happened  to  Israel  in  which 
(alluding  to  Exo.  xxxii.  20)  there  was  not  some  par- 
ticle of  the  dust  of  the  golden  calf."  Compare  with 
this  the  sentence  against  David.  (11)  "  And,"  accord- 
ingly, "  the  Lord  plagued  the  people,"  from  time  to 
time,  with  the  pestilence  and  one  calamity  or  another, 
"  because  they  made  the  calf  which  Aaron  made."  (w) 
Strange  expression  !  It  is  commonly  understood  to 
signify  merely,  that  the  people  furnished  the  materi- 
als, and  that  Aaron,  at  their  instigation,  formed  the 
calf.  This,  indeed,  is  true  ;  but  it  is  far  from  being 
all  that  is  meant.  The  people,  (probably  after  much 
unsuccessful  persuasion  of  Aaron  to  this  act,)  became 
clamorous  and  peremptory  in  their  demand  ;  saying, 
"  Up,  make  us  Elohim,"  gods,  or  a  god,  as  the  word 
is  often  translated ;  that  is,  some  visible  object,  as  a 
symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  "which  shall  go  be- 
fore us,"  (x)  to  supply  the  place  of  the  cloud,  which, 
it  should  seem,  was  taken  up  when  Moses  ascended 
the  mount,  (y)  So  this  demand  of  the  Israelites  has 


(r)  Exo.  xxxii.  1 — 33  ;  particularly,  vcr.  1,  2,  4,  6,  7,  11 — 14, 
and  20—33.  (.s)  Is.  xliii.  25.  Jer.  1,  20.  Hcb.  viii.  12.  (t)  Exo, 
xxxii.  34.  (u)  2  Sam.  xii.  10—14.  (w)  Exo.  xxxii.  35.  (x)  Ibid, 
ver.  1.  (y)  Ibid.  xxiv.  16;  xxxiii.  9. 


31 

T>een  understood  by  the  best  commentators  of  their 
own  nation  ;  who  have  paraphrased  it  thus  :  "  They 
(the  Israelites)  said  to  Aaron,  The  Egyptians  extol 
their  gods,  they  sing  and  chant  before  them  ;  for  they 
behold  them  with  their  eyes  ;  Make  us  such  gods  as 
theirs  are,  that  we  may  see  them  before  us."*  Again : 
"  They  desired  a  sensible  object  of  divine  worship  to 
be  set  before  them  ;  not  with  an  intention  to  deny 
GOD,  who  brought  them  out  of  Egypt,  but  that  some- 
thing in  the  place  of  GOD  might  stand  before  them, 
when  they  declared  his  wonderful  works. "f  Or,  as. 
Ebcn  Ezra  interprets  it,  "  Some  corporeal  image  in 
which  God  may  reside." 

Many  have  been  of  opinion,  that  Aaron  in  making 
the  golden  calf,  designed  to  imitate  the  Egyptian  Apis. 
To  me,  however,  this  opinion  seems  highly  improba- 
ble, for  the  following  reasons :  1.  The  ablest  sup- 
porters of  it,  such  as  Vossius,  Julius  Maternus,  Ruf- 
finus  and  Suidas,  have  considered  the  Apis  a  symbol 
of  the  Patriarch  Joseph ;{  but  if  he  had  been  deified  in 
Egypt,  is  it  probable  that  a  king  could  have  arisen 
there  who  knew  not  Joseph  ?  (z)  2.  Aaron  having  just 
witnessed  the  execution  of  the  divine  judgment  upon 
all  the  idols  of  Egypt  and  consequently  upon  Apis, 
(if  then  among  them)  the  imitation  imputed  to  him  is, 
on  this  account,  very  improbable,  (a)  He  certainly 
could  not  have  supposed  that  JEHOVAH,  to  whom  he 
proclaimed  the  feast,  would  be  pleased  with  being  re- 
presented by  any  of  those  idols  on  which  he  had  so 
recently  taken  vengeance  ;  or  even,  that  the  Israelites 


*  Pirke  Eliezer,  c.  45.  f  Jehudah  in  the  book  Cosri,  P.  I. 
Sect.  97.  |  Gale's  Court  of  the  Gentiles,  pp.  92, 93, 94.  (z)  Ex. 
L  8.  Acts  vii.  18.  (a)  Exo.  xii.  12. 


32 

themselves,  with  all  their  infatuation,  could  possibly 
imagine  their  God  to  resemble  any  thing  worshiped 
by  the  Egyptians,  who  abhorred  the  sacrifices  which 
HE  required. 

But,  (improbabilities  aside,)  this  opinion  is  incon- 
sistent with  chronology  and  therefore  evidently  erro- 
neous. Dr.  Tenison,  afterward  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, has  very  satisfactorily  proved,  that  the  wor- 
ship of  Apis  in  Egypt,  was  not  commenced  till  long 
after  the  times  of  Moses  and  Aaron.*  And  the  learn- 
ed Jablonski,  in  his  Pantheon  ^Egyptiorum,  fixes  the 
consecration  of  theirs/  Apis  at  the  year  1171  before 
Christ ;  but,  according  to  our  received  chronology, 
the  Israelites,  led  by  Moses  and  Aaron,  left  Egypt  in 
the  year  1491  before  Christ,  and  consequently  320 
years  before  the  worship  of  Apis  was  introduced.! 


*  Book  of  Idolatry,  chap.  vi.  part  iv.,  v.,  &c. 

f  That  many  authors  have  so  extravagantly  antedated  the  wor- 
ship of  Apis,  has  been  owing  to  its  having  become  confounded  with 
that  of  the  Sun ;  and  which  occured  in  this  way.  The  Egyptian 
astronomers  having  discovered,  that  the  course  of  the  sun  occa- 
sioned the  seasons  of  the  year,  and  the  Academy  of  Heliopolis 
having  (1325  years  B.  C.)  established  the  solar  year  at  365  days, 
[which  before  had  been  computed  at  360  days,  Gen.  vii.  11,  14, 
and  viii.  3,  4.]  the  priests,  who  till  then  had  honored  the  sun  under 
his  proper  name  Phr6,  bestowed  on  him  the  title  of  Osiris,  which 
Jablonski  says  comes  from  OscA-Iri,  he  who  makes  time.  In  like 
manner  and  at  the  same  period,  the  Egyptian  priests  having  per- 
ceived that  the  moon  which  they  had  worshiped  under  its  proper 
name  Joh,  has  a  direct  influence  on  the  atmosphere,  in  producing 
winds  and  rains,  regarded  it,  like  the  sun,  as  one  of  the  sources  of 
the  inundation.  Hence  they  sought  for  it  a  name  expressive  of  this 
effect ;  and  accordingly,  honored  it  with  the  title  of  Isis,  which, 
in  the  Egyptian  language,  (according  to  the  above  learned  Ety- 
mologist) signifies  the  cause  of  abundance  ;  this  depending,  in  that 


33 

Rejecting,  therefore,  as  entirely  groundless,  the 
opinion  that  Aaron  designed  to  imitate  the  Apis,  I 
think  it  somewhat  probable,  that  he  borrowed  his 
idea  of  the  divine  resemblance  from  the  cherubim, 
one  face  of  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  that  of 
an  ox.  (b) 

But  whencesoever  he  took  the  resemblance,  his 
motive  seems  to  have  been  self-preservation.  Per- 
ceiving that  the  people  were  set  on  mischief  or  in  this 
icickcdmss,  (c)  and  thinking  his  life  in  danger  if  he 
did  not  comply ;  to  pacify  them,  HE  indeed  made  a 
calf,  or  an  ox,  (d)  which  being  an  emblem  of  strength, 
might  serve  as  a  faint  symbol  of  HIM  who  is  ^K  el, 
strength  itself;  but  THEY  made  it  a  god,  by  acknow- 
ledging and  worshiping  it  as  such :  "  These,"  said 


country,  on  the  overflowing  of  the  Nile,  which  the  moon,  as 
well  as  the  sun,  is  supposed  greatly  to  augment.  But  whereas  the 
sun  seemed  to  withdraw  his  favor  during  the  winter,  and  the  moon 
to  desert  them  at  every  change,  it  was  thought  expedient  to  have 
them  represented  by  present  and  significant  symbols.  Accordingly, 
Syncellius,  in  his  chronography,  says  that  during  the  reign  of  Aseth, 
the  thirty-second  Pharaoh,  "  a  calf  [a  bult]  was  placed  amongst 
the  gods  and  called  Apis,"  and  according  to  Eustathius  (Commen- 
tary on  Dion.  Perigetes)  and  Lucian  (Dialogue  of  the  gods, 
book  I.)  at  or  about  the  same  time  a  cow  was  deified,  as  a  sym- 
bol of  the  moon  and  called  Joh.  But  the  sun  having  received 
the  appellation  of  Osiris,  and  the  moon  that  of  Isis,  their  repre- 
sentatives, respectively,  were  honored  with  the  same  titles.  Thence- 
forward, the  Sun  and  the  Apis  were  alike  mentioned,  by  Egyptian 
writers,  under  their  common  name  Osiris  ;  and  hence  the  preva- 
lence of  that  erroneous  opinion  that  the  worship  of  the  bull  Apis 
was  as  ancient  as  that  of  the  sun,  and  therefore  long  before  the 
time  of  Moses.  See  Savory's  Letters  on  Egypt ;  Vol.  II.  Let.  Ixi, 
Also,  Rees's  Cyclopaedia,  under  Osiris  and  Isis. 

(6)  Exo.  xxv.  18—20.  Comp.  chap.xxiv.  10,  11,  and  Ez.  I,  10, 
(c)  wnjna  berang  hu,     Exo.  xxxii.  22.     (d)  Paul,  cvi.  19, 20. 

5 


34 

they,  "  be  thy  gods"  or,  as  Nehemiah  (c)  expresses 
it,  "  This  is  thy  god,  O  Israel,  which  brought  thee  up 
from  the  land  of  Egypt."  (/)  That  this  was  all  Aaron 
meant,  (and  a  shocking  all  too,)  is  evident ;  for  al- 
though he  erected  an  altar  before  the  image,  he 
proclaimed  the  "feast,"  the  sacrifice,  to  JEHOVAH. (g) 
How  contemptible  then,  is  the  effort  which  infidels 
make,  to  disprove  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
by  asserting  that  "they  represent  the  just  God  as 
having  acted  most  unjustly,  in  punishing  many  of  the 
people  with  death,  while  he  exempted  Aaron,  the 
greater  sinner  in  the  affair."  The  charge  is  false, 
and  only  serves,  like  every  other  they  bring,  to  prove 
their  ignorance  of,  and  their  enmity  against,  both  the 
BIBLE  and  its  AUTHOR.  Aaron,  it  is  true,  was  high- 
ly culpable ;  yet  he  was  not,  like  the  people,  guilty 
of  idolatry  at  heart.  His  sin,  like  that  of  Abraham 
and  Isaac,  in  denying  their  wives,  (Ji)  and  like  that  of 
Peter,  in  denying  his  Lord,  (i)  was  a  sin  of  infirmity, 
preceding  from  weakness  of  faith  and  "  the  fear  of 
man,  which  bringeth  a  snare."  (k)  Nor  was  it  con- 
nived at,  either  by  Moses  or  by  the  Lord.  Moses, 
having  expressed  his  abhorrence  of  the  wickedness  of 
both,  by  melting  the  idol  in  the  fire,  grinding  or  filing 
it  to  powder  and  strewing  it  upon  the  water,  of  which 
he  made  the  Israelites  to  drink  ;  (/)  preceded  to  exam- 
ine and  accuse  Aaron,  before  he  did  the  people ;  (m) 
and,  in  his  rehearsal  of  the  unhappy  occurrence 
and  of  his  successful  intercession  for  the  people,  he 
expressly  says,  "  The  Lord  was  very  angry  with  Aa- 
ron, to  have  destroyed  him,  and  I  prayed  for  Aaron 

(c)  Chap.  ix.  18.  (/)  Exo.  xxxii.  4.  (g)  Ibid.  ver.  5.  (k)  Gen. 
xx.  2.  and  xxvi.  7.  (i)  Matt.  xxvi.  70.  (&)  Prov.  xxix.  25.  (/)  Exo. 
xxxii.  20.  (m)  Ibid.  ver.  21.  30. 


35 

also,"  as  well  as  for  the  people,  "  the  same  time."  (n) 
Aaron,  therefore,  as  well  as  the  people,  was  in  im- 
minent danger  of  temporal  death,  and  like  them,  was 
exempted  from  it,  not  by  any  connivance  at  his  sin, 
nor  by  any  act  of  partiality  toward  his  person,  but 
by  an  act  of  mercy  common  toward  him  and  them* 
granted  upon  the  intercession  of  Moses.* 

Passing,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  many  instances  in 
which  Moses  was  evidently  a  blessing  to  Israel,!  shall 
conclude  this  outline  of  his  usefulness  among  them, 
by  remarking,  that  he  received  from  God,  the  pattern 
of  the  Tabernacle  and  of  all  things  relating  to  it,  and 
faithfully  superintended  the  execution  of  the  whole 
design.  This  pattern  included  the  materials,  the 
structure  and  all  the  furniture  of  the  sacred  building ; 
also  the  qualifications  and  even  the  apparel  of  all 
those  who  were  to  officiate  in  it,  and  the  rules  and 
directions  to  be  observed  by  them,  in  their  respective 
stations  and  services.  (0) 

The  pattern  of  all  these  things,  Moses  received 
while  he  was  with  God  in  the  mount ;  and  with  a 
solemn  charge  most  strictly  to  observe  it :  "  Accord- 
ing to  all  that  I  show  thee,"  said  God  to  him,  "  after 
the  pattern  of  the  Tabernacle,  and  the  pattern  of  the 
instruments  thereof,  even  so  shall  ye  make  it."  (p) 
This  important  pattern,  accompanied  with  explana- 
tions, seems  to  have  been  given  to  Moses  in  a  vision ; 
for,  in  repeating  the  charge,  the  Lord  said  to  him, 
"  Look  that  thou  make  them  after  the  pattern  which 
was  showed  thee,"  or,  as  it  is  in  the  Heb.  "  which 


(n)  Deut.  ix.  20.  *  Some  respect  also  might  be  had  to  Aaron's 
office.  See  Num.  xii.  xvi.  and  xvii.  Chap,  (o)  Exo.  from  the 
xxv.  to  the  xl.  chap,  inclusive,  (p)  Ibid.  xxv.  9. 


36 

thou  wast  called  to  see."  (q)  A  question  on  reminis- 
cence is,  in  this  case,  inadmissible ;  for  HE  who  gave 
the  vision  could  with  equal  ease  renew  it,  or  bring  the 
particulars  of  it  to  the  recollection  of  Moses,  when- 
ever required ;  the  Holy  Spirit  being  the  same  then 
as  when  our  Lord  said  to  his  disciples,  "  HE  shall 
bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I 
have  said  unto  you."  (r) 

Moses,  too,  was  faithful  in  his  superintendence  of 
the  whole  design.  For,  when  Bezaleel,  Aholiab  and 
others,  chosen  and  inspired  of  God  for  the  purpose,  (s) 
had  accomplished  the  work,  Moses  looked  upon  it, 
and  "behold."  (difficult  as  was  the  task,)  "  they  had 
done  it  as  the  Lord  had  commanded,  even  so  had  they 
done  it:  and  Moses  blessed  them."  (t)  "And  he  rear- 
ed up  the  court  round  about  the  Tabernacle  and  the 
altar,  and  set  up  the  hanging  of  the  court-gate :  So 
Moses  finished  the  work."  (u)  And  whatever,  to  the 
contrary,  has  been  said  by  profane  skeptics,  the  tes- 
timony of  an  inspired  apostle  to  the  fidelity  of  Moses, 
is  full  and  decisive  :  "Moses,"  saith  he,  "was  faith- 
ful in  all  his  house."  (v) 

These  things  considered,  how  apparent  is  it,  that 
Moses,  as  the  gift  of  God,  was  a  distinguished  bless- 
ing to  Israel ;  and  that  constantly,  from  the  time  he 
was  called  to  be  their  leader  and  commander,  till  the 
time  of  his  death.  Moreover,  at  that  awful  juncture — 

II.  As  the  man  of  God,  he  pronounced  a  blessing 


(q)  Exo.  xxv.  40  iri3  ntna  march  bahar.  compare  Ezek.  xl.  2. 
Heb.  viii.  5.  and  Acts  vii.  44.  (r)  John  xiv.  26.  (s)  Exo.  xxxi. 
2—6.  (t)  Ibid,  xxxix.  43.  (u)  Ibid.  xl.  33.  (v)  Heb.  iii.  2. 

N.  B.  The  analogy  between  Christ  and  Moses,  will  be  found 
in  the  next  sermon. 


37 

upon  them :  " And  this  is  the  blessing"  that  is,  what 
follows  throughout  the  chapter,  is  an  expression 
of  the  blessing,  both  general  and  special,  "  where- 
with Moses,  the  man  of  God,  blessed  the  children  of 
Israel  before  his  death."  This  was  a  blessing  of 
blessings ;  a  blessing  full  of  blessings ;  a  blessing 
upon  the  posterity  of  Jacob  in  common,  yet  one  that 
comprised  in  it  the  characters  and  conditions  of  his 
several  tribes,  in  their  future  generations.  The 
matter  of  this  blessing,  both  common  and  special, 
will  come  under  consideration  in  subsequent  dis- 
courses of  our  Series ;  at  present,  therefore,  we  have 
to  do,  only  with  the  manner  in  which,  the  title  under 
which,  and  the  time  at  which,  Moses  pronounced  it. 
FIRST,  the  manner  in  which  he  pronounced  it. 
This  was  both  by  invocation  and  prediction ;  and 
which  gave  the  utmost  assurance,  that  it  would  be 
granted  and  realized.  As  prayed  for,  by  one  under 
divine  inspiration,  the  blessing  could  embrace  only 
what  it  was  the  will  of  God  to  bestow ;  for  "  HE" 
(God)  "  that  searcheth  the  hearts,"  of  prophets  as 
well  as  of  others.  "  knoweth  what  is  the  mind  of  the 
Spirit,"  in  them  when  they  pray,  "  because  He  (the 
Spirit)  "  maketh  intercession  for  the  saints  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God."  (w)  "  And  knowing  this 
first,  (x)  that  no  prophecy  of  the  Scripture  (as  are 
those  of  human  device)  "  is  of"  or  from  any  man's 
own  proper*  impulse^  or  motion,  as  Fulke  trans- 


(w)  Rom.  viii.  27.  (x)  2  Pet.  i.  20.  *  Suus,  proprius,  one's 
own,  proper.  Parkh.  under  t3«*,  No.  1.  f  ewtWif  has  two  general 
meanings ;  explicatio,  explication,  interpretation,  or  declaration ; 
and  liberatio,  a  deliverance,  a  making  free;  or  egressio,  an  egression^ 
or  going  out.  Hederici  et  Schrevelii.  In  the  place  referred  to,  the 
latter  sense  of  this  word  is  required  by  the  context :  for,  so  under- 


38 

lates  it ;  knowing  this,  I  say,  it  follows,  as  unques- 
tionably true,  that  this  prophecy  of  Moses  concern- 
ing Israel,  did  not  procede  from  any  passionate  de- 
sire in  him  for  their  good,  nor  the  diversity  which  it 
makes  among  the  tribes  and  the  adversity  which  it 
assigns  to  some  of  them,  from  any  natural  foresight 
which  he  possessed,  or  any  partialities  which  he  felt ; 
but  from  the  sovereign  will  of  God,  according  to 
which  he  was  moved  to  speak  and  write  ;  and  con- 
sequently, that  all  the  events  included  in  it,  were  in- 
cluded in  "the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknow- 
ledge of  God,"  and  to  be  accomplished  through  his 
influence  or  his  sufferance :  "  For  the  prophecy  came 
not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man,"  by  the  volitions 
and  inventions  of  those  who  delivered  it ;  "  but  holy 
men  of  God,"  (among  whom  was  Moses)  "  spake  as 
they  were  moved,"  or  impelled,  "  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

SECONDLY,  the  title  under  which  he  pronounced  it ; 
that  of  the  man  of  God.  Under  this  title,  Moses  was 
a  prophet,  a  pastor,  and  apolitical  father,  to  Israel; 
and  in  this  threefold  relation  he  blessed  them.  Hence 

1.  As  a  prophet.  That  God  had  sent  him  to  de- 
liver Israel,  was  now  proved  by  the  success  of  his 
embassy ;  that  he  enjoyed  special  intercourse  with 
God,  had  been  abundantly  evinced,  by  the  numerous 
instances  of  it,  noticed  under  the  former  head ;  and 
that  he  possessed  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  could  be  no 

stood,  it  assigns  a  reason  why  prophecy  is  called  a  sure  word,  v.  19, 
and  proves  that  it  came  not  by  the  will  of  man,  v.  21.  So  far,  in- 
deed, were  the  prophets  from  inventing  their  predictions,  that  im- 
pelled by  divine  influence,  they  often  spake  and  wrote,  what  they 
themselves  desired,  in  vain,  to  understand.  1  Pet.  i.  10 — 12. 
Not  the  interpretation,  then,  but  the  delivering  out  of  the  Scripture, 
is  intended  in  the  passage  in  question. 


39 

longer  questioned ;  many  things  which  he  had  fore- 
told having  already  occurred ;  as,  for  instance,  the 
obduracy  of  Pharaoh  and  the  consequent  plagues  of 
Egypt ;  (10)  the  means  by  which  the  Egyptians  should 
remunerate  the  Israelites  for  their  services  ;  (x)  that, 
in  their  extremity  at  the  Red  sea,  God  would  deliver 
them,  (y)  and  that,  being  brought  out,  they  should 
serve  the  Lord  in  Horeb.  (z)  Thus,  in  the  mission 
of  Moses,  as  afterward  in  that  of  Ezekiel,  God 
caused  Israel,  though  "  a  rebelious  house,"  to  know 
that  he  had  sent  a  prophet  among  them,  (a)  And 
being  a  prophet,  Moses  had  the  appropriate  title,  the 
man  of  God ;  a  title  common  to  the  Old  Testament 
seers,  such  as  Samuel,  (&)  Elijah,  (c)  Elisha,  (cT)  and 
others,  (e)  As  a  prophet,  Moses,  as  we  have  seen 
already,  was  a  great  blessing  to  Israel,  by  his  success- 
ful intercessions  on  their  behalf.  And  truly  it  is  a 
great  blessing  for  any  person  or  people  to  have  an 
interest  in  the  prayers  of  those  who  have  an  interest 
with  God :  even  though  they  be  men  of  like  passions 
with  those  for  whom  they  intercede.  (/)  This  is 
what  our  Lord  had  in  view,  when  he  said  "  He  that 
receiveth  a  prophet  in  the  name  of  a  prophet,  shall 
receive  a  prophet's  reward,  and  he  that  receiveth  a 
righteous  man,  (though  not  a  prophet,)  shall  receive 
a  righteous  man's  reward,"  which  is  an  interest  in 
their  supplications  to  God.  (g)  Chiefly,  however,  in 


(«>)  Exo.  iii.  19.  29.  (x)  Ibid.  ver.  21,  22.  Ch.  xi.  2,  3  and 
xii.  36.  (y)  Exo.  xiv.  13—22.  (z)  Ibid.  iii.  12,  18  and  xix.  1. 
(«)  Ezek.  ii.  5.  comp.  Dcut.  xviii.  21,  22.  (b)  1  Sam.  ix.  6,  18, 
19.  (c)  2  Kings  i.  8,  9.  (d)  Ibid.  ix.  8,  25.  (e)  I  Sam.  ii.  27. 
1  Kings  xii.  22;  xiii.  1.  (/)  Acts  xiv.  15.  Jas.  v.  17.  (g)Matt. 
x.  41. 


40 

the  character  of  a  prophet,  Moses  blessed  Israel,  as,  by 
the  spirit  of  prophecy,  he  foretold  blessings  that  await- 
ed them,  in  their  future  generations.  Thus  in  the  text 
and  from  the  26th  to  the  29th  verse  he  blessed  them 
collectively,  and  from  the  6th  to  the  25th  verse,the  tribes 
of  them  severally.  And  his  former  predictions  having 
been  so  evidently  accomplished,  he  might,  by  an  in- 
fallible rule,  challenge  the  faith  of  Israel  in  those 
which  he  now  delivered.  (K),  The  same  did  Isaiah : 
"  Behold,"  said  he,  "  the  former  things  are  come  to 
pass,  and  new  things  do  I  declare  :  before  they  spring 
forth  I  tell  you  of  them."  (i) 

2.  As  a  pastor.  For  though  he  was  eminently  a 
prophet  to  Israel,  yet  he  was  not,  like  the  other  pro- 
phets, sent  to  them  with  occasional  messages  only ; 
but  like  a  pastor,  a  shepherd,  a  bishop,  he  lived  among 
them,  sojourned  and  fared  with  them,  and  had  a  con- 
tinual care  over  them  and  concern  for  them.*  As 


(h)  Deut.  xviiL  22.     (i)  Isaiah  xlii.  9. 

*  Under  the  gospel,  there  is  a  similar  difference  between  the 
labors  of  stated  pastors  and  those  of  visiting  ministers.  The 
preaching  and  conversation  of  a  visiting  minister,  who  comes  "  in 
the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,"  may  be  to  the 
members  of  a  church  and  to  their  pastor  also,  (like  a  prophet  sent 
with  a  special  message  to  Israel,  or  like  the  coming  of  Titus  to 
Paul  and  other  brethren,)  the  transient  means  of  much  comfort 
and  encouragement ;  but  the  presence  and  labors  of  a  duly  quali- 
fied pastor,  are,  to  a  church,  like  those  of  Moses  to  Israel,  a  more 
constant  and  lasting  blessing.  Jer.  iii.  15.  Eph.  iv.  11,  12. 
A  gospel  minister,  too,  is  called  a  man  of  God.  1  Tim.  iv.  11, 
and  2  Tim.  iii.  17. 

While  thus  digressing  to  embrace  this  subject,  it  is  hoped,  that 
a  word  of  caution,  both  to  pastors  and  churches,  will  not  be 
deemed  obtrusive  or  assuming.  Pastors,  like  Moses,  compared 
with  visiters,  have  great  advantages.  If  upright  and  useful  in 


41 

such,  too,  he  was  a  man  of  God,  and  a  blessing  to 
Israel ;  and  in  this  character,  as  well  as  in  that  of  a 

their  stations,  and  especially  if  possessed  of  distinguishing  talents, 
they  gradually  obtain  a  very  strong  interest  in  the  united  affec- 
tions and  confidence  of  those  to  whom  they  minister,  and,  by 
consequence,  in  process  of  time,  they  acquire  a  great  influence 
among  them.  How  careful,  then,  should  pastors  be,  not  to 
abuse  their  influence,  by  making  it  the  means  of  introducing 
among  their  respective  flocks,  any  dogmas  of  their  own,  not  sup- 
ported by  sacred  writ,  or  by  urging  or  exacting  any  thing  oppres- 
sive or  burdensome ;  but  to  improve  it,  to  promote  truth  and 
righteousness ;  each  endeavoring  to  be,  like  Moses,  "  faithful  in 
all  his  house,"  in  ail  the  duties  of  his  charge.  But  while  pastors 
have  advantages,  they  also  labor  under  disadvantages,  of  which 
the  churches  they  serve  ought  to  be  apprised.  All  men  have  their 
imperfections  and  faults.  Pastors  are  at  home,  where  theirs  are 
all  known  ;  visitors  are  abroad,  where  theirs  are  all  unknown.  The , 
former  having  to  meet  the  same  people  very  frequently,  must 
sometimes  meet  them  with  little  or  no  preparation,  or  in  a  dark 
and  uncomfortable  frame  of  mind  ;  the  latter  may  never  happen  to 
come  among  them  under  such  circumstances :  the  former,  bound 
in  the  course  of  their  ministry,  to  aim  at  illustrating  all  parts  of 
divine  truth,  must  necessarily,  at  times,  dwell  on  subjects  in  which 
many  of  their  hearers  take  but  little  interest ;  the  latter,  while  on 
visits,  may  confine  their  labors  to  subjects  calculated  to  excite 
the  most  general  interest  and  the  most  agreeable  sensations — nay, 
may  enrich  a  few  sermons  with  the  cream  of  all  they  know :  the 
former,  that  they  may  preserve  a  profitable  variety,  must  devote 
much  of  their  time  to  study,  and  so  may  seem  barren  and  churl- 
ish; the  latter,  as  they  can  preach  discourses  which  they  have 
often  preached,  using  either  the  same  or  similar  texts,  may 
seem  to  be  always  ready,  and  therefore  much  at  liberty  to  gratify 
the  people  with  visits  and  conversation.  That  a  pastor  has 
preached  many  animated  and  refreshing  discourses,  is  forgotten ; 
while  one  or  a  few  preached  by  a  visiter,  may  be  remembered  and 
extolled :  the  ministry  of  a  pastor  being  a  common  privilege,  some 
sit  under  it,  with  a  slumbering  indifference,  while  the  same  things 
are  delivered,  which,  if  delivered  by  a  visiter  they  listen  to  and 

6 


42 

prophet,  he  pronounced  this  blessing  upon  them ;  the 
affections  of  the  pastor,  however,  being  herein  "  sub- 
ject to  the  spirit  of  the  prophet."  And 

3.  As  apolitical I  father:  For  although  not  proper- 
ty, yet  virtually, "  he  was  king  in  Jeshurun ;"  (&)  and 
being  so  by  the  special  call  and  appointment  of  God, 
he  was,  as  such  also,  a  man  of  God.  Thus  David, 
being  in  his  kingly  office  "a  man  after  God's  own 
heart,"  (7)  was  not  only  as  a  prophet  and  as  a  pastor, 
but  likewise  as  a  king,  stiled  a  man  of  God.  (m) 
And,  like  every  good  ruler  to  his  subjects,  Moses  was, 
in  this  station,  a  great  blessing  to  Israel ;  and  though, 
in  all  he  foretold  of  them,  he  was  entirely  governed 
by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  yet  in  pronouncing  this 
prophetic  blessing  upon  them,  he  acted  in  the  exalt- 

admire  as  new  and  wonderful.  Besides,  pastors,  like  Moses,  hav- 
ing occasionally  to  "  reprove,  rebuke  and  exhort,"  are,  like  him, 
less  acceptable  to  some,  than  transient  visiters,  from  whom  duty 
may  not  require  such  addresses.  Hence  it  has  often  occurred, 
that  while  other  ministers,  in  no  respect  superior,  have  been  fol- 
lowed and  caressed,  faithful,  watchful  and  laborious  pastors  have 
been,  comparatively,  neglected  and  depreciated.  "  These  things 
ought  not  so  to  be."  Nor  has  it  ever  been  found  that  those  persons 
who  either,  on  the  one  hand,  thus  degrade  their  pastor,  or,  on  the 
other,  idolize  him,  to  the  neglect  of  every  other  minister,  are  the 
more  stable  and  perseveringly  useful  members  of  a  church.  The 
correct  course  is  this :  The  members  of  a  church  should  receive, 
with  affection  and  gladness,  the  person  and  labors  of  every  minis- 
ter of  Christ,  who  comes  among  them :  yet,  in  doing  so,  they 
should  studiously  avoid  whatever,  in  conversation  or  conduct, 
might  tend  to  discourage  the  heart,  weaken  the  hands,  or  lessen 
the  influence  and  usefulness  of  their  pastor,  whose  life  and  labors 
are  devoted  to  their  service,  as  those  of  Moses  were  to  the  service 
of  Israel. 

(k)  Context,  ver.  5.     (/)  1  Rings  xv.  5.     Acts  xiii.  22.     (m)  2 
Chron.  viii.  14, 15.     Neh.  xii.  24, 36. 


43 

ed  relation  and  character  of  their  national  father. 
Nor  must  we,  in  conclusion,  overlook, 

THIRDLY,  the  time  at  which  he  pronounced  this 
blessing — just  before  his  death"  In  this  there  was 
a  peculiar  jfitness,  as  well  as  a  peculiar  solemnity. 
Jacob,  the  natural  father  of  the  twelve  patriarchs, 
had,  when  dying,  prophetically  and  separately  bless- 
ed them ;  but  whereas  it  might  be  apprehended,  that 
the  conduct  of  some  of  them  had  cut  off  the  entail 
from  their  posterity,  Moses,  as  the  political  father  of 
the  latter,  and  moved  by  the  same  Spirit,  renewed 
the  prediction.  His  enunciation  too,  of  this  bless- 
ing upon  the  tribes,  like  that  of  Jacob  upon  their 
progenitors,  was  at  the  approach  of  his  dissolution ; 
it  being  the  last  act  of  his  public  life ;  and  therefore 
when,  humanly  speaking,  it  was  likely  to  make  the 
most  abiding  and  profitable  impression.  For,  if  the 
admonitions,  instructions  and  benedictions  of  a  be- 
loved parent  or  friend,  given  on  a  death-bed  ;  and  if 
those  of  a  beloved  and  long  useful  pastor,  given  in 
his  last  sermon  or  conversation,  are  usually  remem- 
bered to  lasting  advantage,  what  durable  and  happy 
effects  might  justly  ifeve  been  expected  to  result  to 
Israel,  from  the  communications  and  instructions  de- 
livered to  them  in  the  last  sermon,  the  valedictory 
address  of  the  inspired  Moses,  that  eminent  man  of 
God9  whose  faithfulness,  friendship,  and  usefulness, 
they  had  so  long  witnessed  and  so  variously  enjoyed ! 
Besides,  having  informed  them,  that  he  was  under 
a  divine  injunction,  as  soon  as  he  should  end  his 
sermon  to  ascend  mount  Nebo  and  die,  (n)  it  was  im- 
possible for  them  to  attribute  to  him  any  sinister  mo- 
tives ;  they  must  have  deeply  felt,  that  in  a  few  mo- 

(M)  Deut.  xxxii.  48—52. 


44 

ments,  their  censure  or  their  applause  would,  to  him, 
be  for  ever  indifferent;  and  therefore  that,  in  pro- 
nouncing this  blessing  upon  them,  he  could  be  influ- 
enced by  nothing  but  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  and  a 
heart  overflowing  with  desire  and  prayer  for  their 
greatest  good,  temporal  and  eternal. 


SERMON  II. 

THE   MINISTRY   OF   MOSES. 


DEUT.  xxxiii.  1. — And  this  is  the  blessing  wherewith  Moses,  the 
man  of  God,  blessed  the  children  of  Israel  before  his  death. 


HAVING,  in  the  preceding  discourse,  traced  the 
Ministry  of  Moses  literally,  we  now  procede  to  con- 
sider it  typically.  Moses  was  truly  an  extraordina- 
ry character. 

In  some  respects,  he  may  be  regarded  as  a  symbol 
of  the  law,  delivered  through  him ;  the  moral  part  of 
which,  however  old,  remains  like  him,  undiminished 
in  natural  vigor ;  its  "  eye  is  never  dim"  in  detecting 
sin,  nor  its  "natural  force  abated"  in  condemning 
sinners;  "by  the  law,"  now  as  much  as  ever,  "is  the 
knowledge  of  sin ;"  and  hence  it  remains  and  will  for 
ever  remain  true,  that  "by  the  deeds  of  the  law,  no 
flesh  living  can  be  justified  in  the  sight  of  God ;"  yea 
that,  on  the  contrary,  "as  many  as  are  of  the  works 
of  the  law,"  relying  on  their  imperfect  obedience  to  it 
for  justification,  "  are  under  the  curse."  (a) 

In  other  respects,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  sort  of 
vicegerent  or  representative  of  God  himself.  To  as- 
sure him  of  this,  and  thereby  to  silence  his  fears  of 
appearing  before  the  Egyptian  monarch, "  The  Lord 
said  unto  Moses,  See  I  have  made  thee  a  god  unto 

(a)  John  v.  45—47.   Acts  xv.  21.   Rom.  iii.  20.   Gal.  iii.  10. 


46 

Pharaoh:"  (#)  not,  indeed  the  object  of  his  worship, 
but  of  his  dread ;  Moses  being  authorized  to  demand 
of  him  the  release  of  Israel,  and  endued  with  a  mi- 
raculous power  to  punish  him  in  the  event  of  his  re- 
fusing to  let  them  go.  Hence,  all  he  said  and  did  to 
Pharaoh,  was  as  if  God  himself  had  said  and  done  it. 
The  same  mystical  relation,  Moses  also  seems  to  have 
sustained,  with  reference  to  Aaron  and  to  Joshua.  In 
reply  to  his  excuse,  that  he  was  "  not  eloquent  but 
slow  of  speech,"  the  Lord  said  "  Is  not  Aaron  the  le- 
vite  thy  brother  1  I  know  he  can  speak  well — and  he 
shall  be,  even  he  shall  be  to  thee  instead  of  a  mouth, 
and  thou  shalt  be  to  him  instead  of  God ;"  and  again, 
"  Aaron  thy  brother  shall  be  thy  prophet,"  interpreter 
or  spokesman,  as  the  word  then  signified,  (c)  Hence 
let  us  learn  the  distinction  originally  made  between 
crao  roeem,  seers,  and  rzr*r:u  nebieem,  prophets ;  the 
former  had  visions  of  future  times  and  events,  and  an- 
nounced them ;  the  latter  only  enjoyed  extraordinary 
familiarity  and  prevalence  with  God  in  prayer,  as  did 
Abraham,  who  was  the  first  to  whom  this  title  was 
given  ;  (d)  or  a  remarkable  fluency  and  gracefulness 
of  utterance,  on  which  account  it  was  given  to  Aaron, 
as  plainly  appears  from  the  places  just  referred  to,  in 
the  book  of  Exodus.  Nor  was  there,  originally,  any 
thing  more  imported  in  the  word  WM  nabi,  which  both 
R.  Solomon  and  David  Levi  derive  from  aw  nub,  to 
bring  forth,  as  an  orator  does  his  speech.* 

My  principal  object  in  noticing  this  distinction,  is 
to  expose  the  fallacy  of  an  argument  much  relied  on 
by  deists  in  their  attempts  to  prove  that  the  Penta- 

(b)  Exo.  vii.  1.  (c)  Ibid  iv.  10,  14,  16  and  vii.  1.  (d)  Gen. 
xx.  7.  *  Lingua  Sacra  under  K3J. 


47 

teuch  was  not  written  by  Moses ;  namely,  that  the 
word  prophet  occurs  in  it,  which,  from  a  wrong  un- 
derstanding of  1  Sam.  ix.  9,  they  say  was  not  in  use 
till  after  the  times  of  Moses.  Samuel  indeed  said, 
"  nabi,  aprophet,w&s  before-time  called  roeh,  a  Seer :" 
yet,  not  as  denying  that  the  word  prophet  had  been 
used  at  all,  but  that  agreeably  to  the  distinction  just 
noticed,  it  was  not  originally  used  as  synonymous 
with  seer,  as  it  then  was.  Nor  can  any  one,  without 
offering  great  violence  to  the  words  of  Samuel,  un- 
derstand him  to  mean,  that  the  word  prophet  had 
never  till  his  day,  been  applied  to  one  that  foretold 
events ;  but  merely  that,  in  times  then  ancient  it  had 
not  been  so  applied,  and  that  it  had  acquired  this  ap- 
plication by  degrees,  until,  in  his  day,  it  had  become 
common.  Accordingly,  although  Moses,  in  writing 
the  book  of  Genesis  and  that  of  Exodus,  used  it  only 
in  its  primitive  meaning,  that  is,  to  denote  one  re- 
markable either  for  prevalence  in  prayer,  or  for  flu- 
ency of  speech:  yet  in  the  book  of  Deuteronomy 
which  he  wrote  in  the  last  month  of  his  life,  he  used 
it  to  denote  persons  who,  in  earlier  times,  would  have 
have  been  called  seers ;  as  for  instance,  himself,  who 
is  often  mentioned  by  other  inspired  writers  as  hav- 
ing spoken  and  written  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy, 
'and  as  having  foretold  events;  Also  to  denote  the 
Messiah,  that  great  prophet  who  was  to  be  raised  up 
like  unto  Moses, — who,  like  him,  predicted  many 
events  that  have  already  occurred ;  and  which  is  the 
very  sign  Moses  gave  of  a  true  prophet,  (e)  To  return. 
That  Moses,  as  before  remarked,  acted  with  refer- 
ence both  to  Aaron  and  to  Joshua,  as  God's  vicege- 

(e)  Deut.  xviii.  15—21. 


48 

rent  or  representative,  appears  by  his  divinely  au- 
thorized induction  of  them  into  their  respective  offi- 
ces, and  by  the  authoritative  instructions  and  charges 
which  he  gave  them.  (/) 

In  his  ministry,  however,  Moses  is  chiefly  to  be 
viewed  as  a  type  of  Christ.* 

First,  in  his  call  to  the  peculiar  station  which  he 
filled.  As  Moses,  to  that  station,  so  Christ,  to  his  me- 
diatorial office,  received  his  call  from  God  the  Father ; 
who  "called  him  in  righteousness,"  and  promised  him 
succor,  as  man,  and  success  as  Mediator,  (g)  As 
Moses  received  his  call  and  commission,  while  alone 
with  God  in  mount  Horeb ;  so  Christ,  when  no  crea- 
ture was  present,  yea  before  any  existed,  received  his 
call  and  appointment  from  the  Father,  in  the  mount  of 
glory — in  the  council  of  heaven.  (Ji)  Hence,  in  acts  of 
love  for  his  people  and  in  covenant  engagements  on 
their  behalf,  "  his  goings  forth  have  been  from  of  old, 

(/)  Exo.  xxviii.  and  xxix.  Deut.  xxxi.  7,  8,  14, 23,  and  xxiv.  9. 

*  This  obvious  and  instructive  analogy  would,  indeed,  have  ap- 
peared to  much  greater  advantage,  could  it,  in  a  methodical  man- 
ner, have  accompanied  the  history  of  Moses  under  the  first  head  of 
the  former  discourse ;  but,  being  desirous  there  to  answer  some  ob- 
jections raised  by  skeptics,  against  the  inspiration  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  to  show  the  harmony  of  some  supposed  inconsistencies 
in  the  Mosaic  narrative,  I  was  aware,  that  the  analogy  so  conducted, 
would  often  occasion  interruption  and  obscurity;  and  therefore, 
reserved  it  for  separate  consideration.  Nor  must  the  reader  even 
here,  expect  to  find  all  the  particulars  regarding  the  ministry  of 
Moses  applied  to  Christ :  some  of  them,  it  might  not  be  proper  so 
to  apply,  and  others  are  either  but  slightly  touched  or  entirely  omit- 
ted, that  they  may  receive  due  attention  when  required  in  the  future 
discoures  of  our  Series. 

(g)  Is.  xlii.  6,  7 ;  xlix.  8—13.     (h)  Exo.  iii.  1,  12.     Prov.  viii. 
22—31. 


40 

.or  everlasting."  (i)  And  accordingly,  he  received 
for  them,  the  promise  of  eternal  life  and  the  gift  of  all 
grace  needful  to  prepare  them  for  it  and  to  bring  them 
to  it,"  before  the  world  began."  (k) 

Secondly,  in  the  work  he  was  called  to  accomplish ; 
namely,  the  redemption,  the  deliverance,  and  the  sub- 
sequent government  of  Israel ;  also  the  erection  of  the 
tabernacle  for  their  accommodation. 

1.  Their  redemption. 

Israel,  the  people  whom  Moses  was  called  and 
sent  to  redeem,  were  previously  in  a  peculiar  relation 
to  God,  as  his  first-born,  and  therefore  as  his  heir ;  (I) 
to  them,  in  a  national  sense,  "belonged  the  adoption" 
to  ceremonial  privileges  and  to  the  inheritance  of  Ca- 
naan ;  (m)  so  the  elect,  whom  Christ  was  called  and 
sent  to  redeem,  though  "  scattered  abroad"  among  all 
nations,  were,  by  adoption  "the  children  of  God,"  and 
consequently  his  heirs — heirs  of  grace,  of  spiritual 
privileges  and  of  eternal  life ;  (ri)  yet  being  like  Israel, 
in  bondage,  like  them,  they  must  be  redeemed,  that 
they  might  receive  their  bequeathed  inheritance,  (o) 

Moses  redeemed  Israel,  not  with  silver  and  gold, 
but  by  the  blood  of  lambs ;  (p)  so  an  apostle  ad- 
dressing those  whose  redemption  was  made  manifest 
by  their  calling,  reminds  them  that  they  were  re- 
deemed, not  by  precious  metals,  but  by  precious  blood ; 
"  ye  were  not  redeemed,"  saith  he,  "  by  corruptible 
things,  as  silver  and  gold — but  by  the  precious  blood 
of  Christ,  as  of  a  Lamb  without  blemish  and  without 
spot ;  who  verily  was  fore-ordained  before  the  foun- 

(i)  Micah  v.  2.  (k)  Titus  i.  2.  1  Tim.  i.  9.  (/)  Exo.  hv32 ; 
xxxiv.20.  Deut.  xxi.  15—17.  (m)  Rom.  ix.  4.  5.  (n)  Johnxi.  52. 
Heb.  ii.  14.  (o)  Rom.  vi.  23-  (p)  Exo.  xii. 

7 


50 

dation  of  the  world,  but  was  manifest  in  these  last 
times  for  you."  (c) 

The  lambs  slain  for  Israel,  were  "  according  to  the 
number  of  the  souls,"  the  persons  to  be  redeemed  and 
nourished  by  them.  So  by  covenant  arrangement,  the 
atonement  made  by  Christ  was  correspondent  to  the 
number  of  God's  elect,  the  antitype  of  national  Israel; 
and  who,  being  redeemed  by  him,  are,  in  the  order  of 
time,  all  brought  to  live  on  him,  the  true  passover.  (/) 
Yet,  as  the  redemption  of  Israel  was  by  a  common  price, 
one  costing  no  more  than  another,  it  is  thereby  strong- 
ly suggested,  that  such  also  is  the  redemption  of  the 
elect,  by  Christ.*  Indeed  the  contrary  supposition,  as 
it  implies  that  his  sufferings  for  them  were  as  various 
as  their  personal  guilt,  is  highly  improbable.  More- 
over, it  naturally  occasions  such  questions  as  these : 
Whom  does  Christ  love  most]  Those  for  whom  he 
suffered  most — or  those  for  whom  he  suffered  least  1 
Nay,  does  not  this  hypothesis  imply  as  great  a  diver- 
sity in  his  love  to  his  redeemed,  as  there  was  in  his 
sufferings  for  them  1  And,  if  so,  Will  he  not,  even  in 
the  heavenly  state,  make  a  correspondent  difference 
in  favour  of  the  greater  or  smaller  sinners  among 
them,  as  he  may  love  the  one  or  the  other  most  I 
To  assert  this  view,  therefore,  of  the  Redeemer's  suf- 
ferings, seems  to  me,  unwarrantable.  Nevertheless, 
as  will  presently  be  made  to  appear,  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  like  that  of  the  paschal  lambs,  was  to  redeem 
and  feed  a  definite  people. 

Here,  however,  we  should  carefully  distinguish  be- 

(e)  1  Pet.  i.  18—20.  comp.  Heb.  ix.  14.  (/)  Exo.  xii.  1  Cor.  v. 
7  and  Gal.  ii.  20.  *  The  elect  constitute  the  one  mystical  body,  ef 
which  Christ  is  the  Head  and  Saviour — the  one  church,  which  he 
redeemed,  not  member  by  member,  but  as  a  whole,  by  one  sacrifice, 
He  "loved  the  church  and  gave  himself  for  it"  Eph.  v.  23 — 27. 


51 

tween  the  sacrifice  itself,  and  the  extent  of  the  atone- 
ment for  which  it  was  designed  and  accepted.  For  as 
a  learned  divine  of  this  city,  has  justly  observed, "  The 
sacrifice  is  intrinsically  of  infinite  worth ;  but,  the 
atonement  produced  by  it,  is  defined  by  previous  com- 
pact."* To  deny  that  a  compact  between  the  divine 
persons  previously  existed,  is,  in  effect,  to  deny  that  the 
death  of  Christ,  in  a  way  of  atonement  or  satisfaction 
to  divine  justice,  was  of  any  avail  at  all ;  for,  as  the 
acceptance  of  every  typical  sacrifice,  for  its  specified 
end,  so  the  acceptance  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  as  an 
atonement  and  satisfaction  to  divine  justice  for  sin,  de- 
pended wholly  upon  the  antecedent  stipulation  or  de- 
clared will  of  God,  as  the  lawgiver,  to  accept  it,  for 
that  purpose.  And  admitting  such  compact,  which 
necessarily  implies  a  specification  both  of  the  satisfac- 
tion required  and  of  the  reward  promised,  it  becomes 
impossible,  without  denying  divine  prescience  and  ad- 
mitting divine  fallibility,  to  conceive  of  the  atonement 
made  by  Christ,  as  being  either  indefinite  in  its  extent, 
or  uncertain  in  its  result. 

Those  professors  of  Christianity,  who  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  a  compact,  or  covenant  agreement  between 
the  divine  persons  respecting  the  salvation  of  sinners, 
reason  thus :  If,  say  they,  such  a  covenant  was  entered 
into  by  the  sacred  Trinity,  why  was  it  not  more  for- 
mally revealed  I  We  answer — No  doubt  for  reasons 
worthy  of  infinite  wisdom ;  and,  perhaps,  among 
others,  for  that  which  follows  :  If  this  sacred  and  eter- 
nal compact  had  been  revealed  in  the  Bible,  in  the  for- 
mal manner  in  which  a  covenant  between  two  or  more 
men  is  produced  by  a  scrivener,  infidels  would  have 
brought  against  it  their  usual  imputation :  they  would 

*  Dr.  McLeod  on  True  Godliness,  Ser.  I.  p.  22. 


52  **. 

have  said  "  It  bears  evident  marks  of  human  contri- 
vance and  therefore  of  imposture."  Wherefore,  in  the 
wisdom  of  God,  this  incomparable  covenant,  is  re- 
vealed in  a  manner  not  at  all  liable  to  that  impious 
charge ;  for  regardless  of  forms,  such  as  men  devise, 
the  mutual  stipulations  and  confidence  of  the  cove- 
nantees,  and  the  blessings  secured  to  those  covenanted 
for,  are  to  be  found  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  merely 
as  the  occasions  on  which  they  are  mentioned,  the 
connexions  in  which  they  stand,  and  the  circumstan- 
ces of  believers,  required.  Yet,  in  this  way,  the  ex- 
istence of  the  compact  under  consideration  is  so  clear- 
ly and  abundantly  revealed,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to 
conceive  how  any  who  believe  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  and  consequently,  the  incarnation,  death  and 
resurrection  of  Christ,  to  redeem  sinners,  and  the 
grant  and  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  regene- 
rate and  sanctify  them,  can  possibly  deny  it,  or  even 
admit  a  question  upon  it. 

Nevertheless,  as  in  this  case,  the  covenantees  are 
such  as  cannot  lie,  the  object  of  revealing  their  secret 
transactions  and  causing  them  to  be  placed  upon  the 
sacred  records,  could  not  be,  like  that  of  two  or  more 
fallible  men,  in  causing  the  articles  of  an  agreement 
adjusted  between  them,  to  be  reduced  to  writing  and 
entered  upon  the  public  records ;  which  is  to  bind  the 
parties  to  each  other  and  thereby  to  secure  their  mu- 
tual performance ;  to  suppose  this  would  be  blasphe- 
mous ;  but,  that  the  existence  of  this  covenant  between 
parties  absolutely  infallible,  and  which  therefore  must 
be  "  a  covenant  ordered  in  all  things  and  sure,"  being 
made  known  to  us,  we  might  have  strong  consola- 
tion, who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  upon  the 
hope  set  before  us."  Heb.  vi.  17, 18. 


53 

The  stipulations  and  provisions  of  this  EVERLASTING 
COVENANT  of  GRACE  and  REDEMPTION,  settled  be- 
tween the  ETERNAL  THREE  in  the  COUNCIL  of  PEACE, 
are  found,  when  collected  from  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
to  run  summarily  thus :  Jointly  agreed  in  the  sovereign 
purpose,  that  a  chosen  and  definite  people  should  in- 
herit grace  and  glory,  the  Son  "  engaged  his  heart  to 
approach  unto"  the  Father,  the  lawgiver,  on  their 
behalf;  that  is,  to  answer  all  the  demands  of  his  law 
and  justice  against  them,  that  so  their  salvation  and 
glorification  might  be  agreeable  to  the  principles  of 
eternal  righteousness ;  (K)  the  Father  engaged,  there- 
upon, to  remit  their  sins  and  justify  their  persons,  by 
an  act,  indeed,  of  his  mere  grace  toward  them,  yet, 
with  reference  to  his  justice, "  through  the  redemption 
that  is  in  Christ ;"  (i)  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  like 
manner,  engaged  to  regenerate  them,  to  lead  them  to 
Christ,  by  a  faith  of  reliance  on  him,  and  to  prepare 
them  for  the  holy  and  heavenly  inheritance,  (j)  Chief- 
ly, however,  the  revelation  made  on  this  subject,  re- 
lates to  the  mutual  stipulations  and  mutual  confidence 
of  the  Father,  the  lawgiver,  and  of  the  Son,  the  law- 
fulfiller ;  the  Spirit  concurring,  and  freely  preceding 
from  both.  (&) 

The  stipulations  of  the  Son,  may  be  concluded  from 
what  the  Father  relied  on  him  to  accomplish :  "  The 
Lord,  (Jehovah  the  Father)  is  well  pleased,"  said 
an  ancient  prophet,  "  for  his  righteousness'  sake," 
meaning  the  righteousness  of  the  Son  as  a  divine  per- 
son, which  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  fail  of 

(h)  Jer.  xxx.  21,  22.  Dan.  ix.  24.  Rom.  iii.  25,  26.  (i)  Is. 
xlv.  25.  Rom.  iii.  24.  (j)  Is.  xliv.  3—6.  Ezek.  xxxvi.  26. 
2  Thess.  ii.  13.  1  Pet.  i.  2.  (k)  John  xiv.  26  ;  xv,  26. 


54 

perfectly  accomplishing  all  he  had  stipulated  to  do ; 
and  hence  it  is  added,  "he  will" — though  he  had  not 
yet  done  it — "  he  will,"  at  the  appointed  time,  "  mag- 
nify the  law  and  make  it  honorable."  (/)  And  ac- 
cordingly, "when  the  fulness  of  the  time,"  agreed  on 
in  the  divine  council,  "  was  come,  God  sent  forth  his 
Son,  made,"  as  to  the  flesh  in  which  he  was  manifest- 
ed, "  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  to  redeem  them 
that  were  under  the  law,  that  we  might  receive  the 
adoption  of  sons,"  that  is,  the  Spirit  of  adoption, 
which  is  given  to  none  but  those  who,  by  adoption, 
are  sons  before  ;  for  the  apostle  adds — "  because  ye 
are  sons,  God  hath  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  his  Son 
into  your  hearts,  crying  Abba,  Father,  (in)  Christ 
being  both  holy  and  harmless  (n)  the  law  found  no 
fault  in  him ;  yet  having  voluntarily  taken  the  law- 
place  of  the  elect,  and  having,  by  imputation,  all  their 
iniquities  laid  upon  him,  he  was  treated  accordingly : 
"It  pleased  the  Lord,"  Jehovah  the  Father,  "  to  bruise 
him;  he  hath  put  him  to  grief;"  he  "bare  our  sins," 
the  punishment  due  to  us  for  them,  "  in  his  own  body 
on  the  tree;"  he  "suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the 
unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God."  (o)  Thus  it 
was  that  he  "  made  reconciliation  for  iniquity  and 
brought  in  everlasting  righteousness,"  for  all  whom  he 
represented  in  his  life,  and  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion ;  and  hence  it  is,  that  we  are  reconciled  to  God," 
that  is,  to  his,  justice  "by  the  death  of  his  Son,  and 
"  redeemed  from  the  curse  of  the  law,"  by  him  who 
was  "  made  a  curse  for  us."  (p)  But,  to  precede — 

(?)  Is,xlii.  21.  (m)  Gal.  iv.  4—6.  (n)  Heb.  vii.  26.  (o)  Is. 
liii.  6—10.  1  Pet.  ii.  24  and  iii.  18.  (p)  Dan.  ix.  24.  Rom.  v. 
10.  Gal.  iii.  13. 


55 

Whatever  advantages  the  Egyptians  enjoyed,  by  the 
long  residence  of  the  Israelites  among  them,  they  had 
no  interest  in  the  redemption  of  Israel,  by  the  paschal 
lambs ;  so,  although  the  destruction  of  the  world,  like 
that  of  Egypt  and  of  Jerusalem,  is  delayed  "  for  the 
the  elect's  sake,"  till  they  shall  all  be  born,  and  born 
again ;  (q)  and  though  the  church  is  "  the  salt  of  the 
earth  and  the  light  of  the  world  ;"  (r)  yet  the  non-elect 
have  no  part  nor  lot  in  the  vital  ransom,  the  stipulat- 
ed price,  which  Christ  paid  for  all  the  elect,  of  all  na- 
tions, generations  and  conditions,  "to  be  testified" 
to  the  world  in  the  gospel,  and  to  the  elect,  by  the 
Spirit,  "  in  due  time."*  For,  as  the  lambs  were  not 
slain  for  the  Israelites  and  the  Egyptians  in  common, 
but  exclusively  for  the  former ;  so  Christ,  the  Lamb 
of  God,  laid  down  his  life,  not  for  the  sheep  and 
the  goats  in  common,  but  exclusively  "for  the 
sheep ;"  (f)  and  as  the  lambs  were  not  slain  to  re- 
deem Egypt  for  the  sake  of  Israel,  but  to  redeem 
Israel  from  the  fate  of  Egypt;  so  although  in  a  pro- 
vidential way,  Christ,  as  Mediator,  sustains  the  pil- 


(q)  Matt.  xxiv.  22.     2  Pet.  iii.  9.     (r)  Matt.  v.  13,  14. 

*  The  vital  ransom,  the  stipulated  price.]  AvnXvrpov,  from  avn  in 
return  or  correspondency,  and  A«rpov  a  ransom,  certainly  signifies 
something  more  than  simply  "  a  ransom,"  as  in  our  version. 
Parkhurst  renders  it  "  a  correspondent  ransom,"  and  Leigh,  "  a 
counter-price."  According  to  Hyperius,  "it  properly  signifies  a 
price  by  which  captives  are  redeemed  from  the  enemy,  and  that 
kind  of  exchange  in  which  the  life  of  one  is  redeemed  by  the  life 
of  another."  So  Aristotle  (in  Scapulu)  uses  the  verb  avnXvrpow 
for  redeeming  life  by  life.  See  Parkhurst,  G.  &  E.  Lex.  and 
Leigh's  Crit.  Sacra.  The  word  occurs  no  where  in  the  N.  T.  but 
in  1  Tim.  ii.  6.  Comp.  Matt.  xx.  28. 

(0  John  x.  15.     Matt.  xxv.  31 — 46. 


56 

iars  of  the  earth  and  preserves  mankind  upon  it,  till 
the  mystery  of  grace  shall  be  accomplished ;  (u)  and 
which  may  be  one  reason  why  he  is  called  "  the  Sa- 
viour of  the  world :"  yet  he  died,  not  to  redeem  the 
world  for  the  sake  of  his  people,  but  to  redeem  his 
people  from  the  fate  of  the  world.  He  "  gave  him- 
self for  our  sins,  that,"  as  a  matter  of  consequent 
right  "  he  might  deliver  us,"  in  conversion — at  death 
— and  at  the  resurrection,  "from  the  present  evil 
world,  according  to  the  will  of  God  and  our  Fa- 
ther." (w) 

To  evade  the  force  of  evidence,  which  this  type  af- 
fords in  favor  of  particular  redemption,  it  has  been 
said,  "  The  paschal  lambs,  as  they  were  not  offered 
upon  an  altar,  were  not  properly  a  sacrifice ;"  but  this 
circumstance  served  only  to  render  them  a  more  com- 
plete and  appropriate  type  of  Christ ;  who  also  was 
not  offered  on  a  material  altar,  but  who,  nevertheless, 
as  testified  by  an  apostle,  "  hath  given  himself for  us 
an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God  for  a  sweet  smelling 
savor  ;"  (x)  besides,  the  same  apostle  expressly  as- 
asserts,  that  "  Christ  our  passover,"  and  therefore  as 
the  antitype  of  the  paschal  lambs,  "  is  sacrificed  for 
us."  (y)  It  is  further  objected,  "  That  it  was  not  the 
death  of  the  lambs  but  the  sprinkling  of  their  blood 
that  secured  Israel."  Granted  :  but  their  blood  was 
sprinkled  as  well  as  shed ;  and  all  for  whom  it  was  shed 
were,  by  the  sprinkling  of  it,  secured  from  temporal 
death.  "  How  much  more  shall  the"  infinitely  precious 
"  blood  of  Christ,"  by  its  atoning  and  purifying  effi- 
cacy, deliver  all  for  whom  it  was  shed  "  from  the 
wrath  to  come,"  and  render  their  persons  and  servi- 

(u)  Psal.  Ixxv.  3.  (w)  Gal.  i.  4.  (x)  Eph.  v.  2.  (y)  1.  Cor. 
v.  7. 


57 

ces  acceptable  to  God !  (z)     The  sacrifice  of  Christ 
was  either  a  complete  satisfaction  to  divine  Justice 
for  the  sins  of  those  for  whom  it  was  offered,  or  it  was 
not ;  if  not,  it  furnishes  no  security,  that  even  one  of 
them  shall  be  saved ;  and  if  it  was,  it  renders  it  im- 
possible that,  consistently  with  divine  justice,  even  one 
of  them  can  be  lost.    But,  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
was  a  complete  satisfaction  to  divine  justice  for  all 
the  sins  of  all  for  whom  it  was  offered,  even  God  the 
Father,  by  whom  he  "  was  delivered  for  our  offenses, 
has  openly  acknowledged  and  declared,  in  raising  him 
from  the  deadjfor  our  justification,  (a)     Indeed,  an 
unsatisfactory  atonement,  is  virtually  no  atonement ; 
and  how  the  notion  of  it  ever  gained  admission  among 
men  of  science,  is  really  difficult  to  conceive.     Yet 
"  Somehow,"  as  Dr.  McLeod  observes,*  "  it  has  come  \ 
to  pass,  that  very  discerning  men  have  made  them- 
selves familiar  with  ideas  of  an  atonement  which  they 
revere  as  complete,  although  it  neither  satisfies  jus- 
tice nor  procures  reconciliation — But,"  continues  he, 
"  sure  I  am,  that  no  man  will,  in  the  common  concerns 
of  life,  in  the  courts  of  law,  or  in  the  public  transac- 
tions of  nations,  consider  that  atonement  complete, 
which  is  not  satisfactory,  nor  that  satisfactory,  which 
does  not  set  future  controversy  aside,  produce  recon- 
ciliation, and  exclude  further  punishment." 

Nor  are  the  covenant-stipulations  of  the  Father, 
securing  to  the  Son  his  promised  reward,  any  less 
clearly  revealed.  The  evangelical  prophet,  fore-see- 
ing that  the  Messiah  would  be  personally  innocent, 
and  "  yet  that  it  pleased  the  Lord,"  Jehovah  the  Fa- 

(z)  Heb.  ix.  14.  x.  14.  Col.  i.  20—22.  1  Pet.  ii.  5.  (a)  Rom. 
iv.  25.  *  Ser.  I.  p.  21,  22. 

8 


58 

ther,  "  to  bruise  him,"  might  be  tempted  to  think 
the  act  unjust  and  cruel ;  which,  without  a  previous 
compact,  it  must  have  been ;  wherefore,  to  remove  his 
temptation,  and  to  manifest  to  him,  and,  through  him, 
to  mankind  in  all  future  generations,  the  equity  and 
benevolence  of  the  divine  procedure,  in  regard  to  this 
awful  transaction,  God  further  revealed  to  him,  that 
the  innocent  sufferer,  by  his  own  antecedent  and  vol- 
untary engagement,  stood  in  the  law-place  of  a  guilty 
people;  and  that,  in  bearing  their  dreadful  right,  he 
was  animated  by  the  prospect  of  a  certain  and  satisfac- 
tory reward  :  "  When  his  soul,  his  life,  shall  make  an 
offering  for  sin,*  he  shall  see  his  seed,"  his  spiritual 
offspring  multiplying  in  all  ages  and  among  all  na- 
tions, according  to  the  tenor  and  provisions  of  the 
covenant ;  "  he  shall  prolong  his  days  ;"  the  days  of 
his  mediatorial  station  and  procreative  influence, 

*  This  version  is  substituted  instead  of  the  common  one,  not 
merely  because  it  has  been  preferred  by  many  learned  commenta- 
tors and  critics,  but  chiefly  because,  in  my  opinion,  it  refers  the 
words  to  the  true  speaker  and  conveys  their  true  meaning,  while 
the  other  does  not.  According  to  the  common  version,  the  speaker 
is  the  prophet,  addressing  God  the  Father;  whereas,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  seems  evident  from  the  following  context,  that  here  and 
to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  the  speaker  is  God  the  Father  addressing 
the  prophet ;  for  who  but  he  could  say  of  the  Messiah,  as  in  ver. 
11.  "  My  servant,  &c."  and  in  ver.  12.  "Therefore  will  I  divide 
him  a  portion,"  &c. 

"  For  CTS?r\  shall  make,  a  MS.  has  Ot?r»,  which  may  be  taken 
passively  shall  be  made."  Dr.  Lowth's  Notes  on  Is.  liii.  10.  But, 
to  adopt  this  reading  upon  the  authority  of  one  MS.  instead  of  the 
standard  Hebrew  text,  supported  by  many  MSS.  as  well  as  ancient 
versions,  would  be  unsafe.  Nor  does  it  comport  with  fact ;  for  al- 
though, in  his  death,  Christ  was  passive,  his  submission  to  it  was 
voluntary.  John  x.  17, 18.  and  xii.  24. 


59 

throughout  all  generations,  "  and  the  pleasure  of  the 
Lord,"  the  work  which  it  was  the  pleasure  of  the  Fa- 
ther to  assign  to  him,  "shall  prosper  in  his  hand." 
"  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,"  the  issue  of 
his  sufferings,  "  and  shall  be  satisfied,"  and  which  he 
can  never  be,  till  all  for  whom  he  travailed  shall  be  re- 
generated, sanctified  and  glorified.  "  By  his  know- 
ledge," adds  the  Father  "  shall  my  righteous  servant," 
the  Messiah,  "justify  many;  for,"  in  order  thereto, 
"he  shall  bear  their  iniquities."  The  knowledge  of 
the  Messiah,  here  intended,  is  either  subjectively,  that 
knowledge  of  the  curse  which  he  received,  when,  as 
the  substitute  of  those  he  represented,  "he  learned 
obedience,"  the  bitter  effects  of  it  in  his  human  nature, 
during  "  the  days  of  his  flesh"  in  common,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  garden  and  on  the  cross ;  Heb.  v.  7 — 9  ; 
or  objectively,  that  knowledge  of  him,  which  his  re- 
deemed receive,  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who,  to  them,  is 
"  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  him;"  Eph.  i.  17.  Indeed  both  seem  to  be 
included;  the  former,  as  the  meritorious  cause,  the 
latter,  as  the  believing  apprehension  of  our  justifica- 
tion. In  both  senses,  therefore,  the  words  unequi- 
vocally assert,  that  through  Christ,  all  whose  iniqui- 
ties he  bare  shall  be  justified.  And  these  are  many ; 
Christ "  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  many ;"  (Matt.  xx. 
28.  Mark  x.  45.)  and  accordingly  many  shall  be 
justified  in  him;  even  all  the  millions  of  God's  elect, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  world ;  and  who 
are  "  a  great  multitude  which  no  man  can  number,-  t>f 
all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people  and  tongues.':' 
Rev.  v.  9  and  vii.  9.  But  many  as  they  are,  they  were 
all  in  a  way  of  special  love,  individually  and  distinctly 
fore-known  to  the  Father  who  had  chosen  thega,  jo 


60 

the  Lamb  who  has  redeemed  them,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost  who  regenerates  and  seals  them.  Rom.  viii; 
29, 30  and  1  Pet.  i.  2.  In  a  civil  sense,  however,  they 
are,  in  common  with  others,  subjects  of  the  rulers  of 
their  respective  nations ;  "  therefore,"  saith  the  Fa- 
ther concerning  the  Messiah,  "  Iwill  divide  him  a  por- 
tion with  the  great,"  the  kings  and  other  rulers  of 
the  earth;  a  portion  of  whose  respective  subjects 
shall  become  the  subjects  of  Christ,  who  is  King  of 
kings ;  "  and  he  shall  divide  the  spoil  with  the  strong," 
meaning  Satan,  "  the  strong  man  armed,"  who  made 
a  spoil  of  all  mankind ;  but  from  whom,  Christ  "  a 
stronger  than  he,"  wrests  and  delivers  all  who,  by 
the  Father's  original  gift,  and  by  his  own  redemption 
of  them  after  they  had  fallen,  belong  to  him ;  Luke 
xi.  22  ;  and  that  "because  he  hath  poured  out  his 
soul,"  his  life,  "unto  death,  and  was,"  though  per- 
sonally innocent, "  numbered  with  the  transgressors," 
with  the  vilest  criminals,  of  which  his  crucifixion 
between  two  thieves  was  an  emblem  ;  "  and,"  while 
thus  suffering,  "  he  bare  the  sins  of  many,  and  made 
intercession  for  the  transgressors,"  whose  sins  he 
bare.  (5) 

To  all,  therefore,  who  in  this  case,  talk  of  obsta- 
cles and  contingencies,  and  of  sinners  for  whom 
Christ  died,  going  to  hell  because  they  will  not  re- 
pent and  believe ;  no  more  appropriate  answer  can 
be  furnished  than  that  of  Christ  to  the  Sadducees 
who  denied  the  resurrection :  "  Ye  do  err,  not  know- 
ing the  Scriptures  nor  the  power  of  Godi"  (c)  Could 
not  he  that  created  the  body,  raise  it  from  natural 

(b)  Is.  liii.  10—12.  Luke  xxiii.  34.  John  xvii.  6,  20.  Rom. 
viii.  34.  Heb.  vii.  25.  1  John  ii.  1,  12.  (c)  Matt.  xxii.  29. 


61 

deathl  And  cannot  he  that  created  the  soul  quick- 
en it  from  a  state  of  moral  death  1  IN  or  do  the  Scrip- 
tures any  more  clearly  show,  that  it  is  the  purpose  of 
God  to  raise  the  dead  at  the  last  day,  than  that  it  is 
his  purpose  to  regenerate  and  convert  all  his  elect  in 
the  present  life:  "I,"  saith  he,  "will  give  them  an 
heart  to  know  me,  that  I  am  the  Lord :  and  they  shall 
be  my  people,  and  I  will  be  their  God :  for  they  shall 
return  unto  me  with  their  whole  heart."  (d)  Indeed, 
his  bestowment  upon  them,  of  the  remedy  itself,  the 
richest  of  all  his  gifts,  argues  incontrovertible/  his 
purpose  to  bestow  upon  them  whatever  is  requisit  to 
render  this  remedy  effectual  to  their  present  and  eter- 
nal salvation,  and  therefore,  the  regenerating  grace 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  which  faith  and  repentance,  are 
never-failing  effects.  So  reasoned  an  apostle ;  who, 
speaking  in  the  name  of  the  whole  redeemed  family 
and  for  the  comfort  of  those  in  every  age,  who,  being 
called,  are  manifestly  of  this  family,  exultingly  said, 
"  HE  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered  him 
up  for  us  all,  how  shall  HE  not  with  7iim  also  freely 
give  us  all  things ;"  including  not  only  all  blessings 
spiritual  and  temporal,  requisit  for  believers  during 
their  pilgrimage,  and  the  kingdom  of  glory  at  their 
journey's  end,  but  also  quickening  and  enlightening 
grace,  to  those  of  the  redeemed,  yet  dead  and  blind,  (e) 
These  things  considered,  it  becomes  evident,  that 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  like  that  of  the  paschal  lambs, 
was  "according  to  the  number  of  the  souls,"  the  per- 
sons to  be  redeemed ;  that  is,  it  was  a  complete  satis- 

(d)  Jer.  xxiv.  7.  John  v.  25—29;  vi.  37,  39,  45.  Eph.  ii.  1, 
4,  5.  C^l.  i.  13 ;  ii.  13.  Acts  xiii.  48.  (e)  Rom.  viii.  32—34. 
Phil.  iv.  19. 


62 

faction  to  divine  justice  for  the  sins,  and  an  ample 
provision  for  the  souls  of  all  whom  he  covenanted  to 
redeem  and  save ;  and  who  are  defined,  both  collect- 
ively and  individually ;  collectively,  they  are  "  the 
general  assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born,"  the 
heirs  of  God,  "  which  are  written  in  heaven ;"  and 
individually;  they  are  those  whom  God  designed  to 
reserve  and  pardon,  and  "  whose  names"  agreeably 
to  that  design,  "  were  written"  (as  those  of  others 
were  not)  "in  the  book  of  life  of  the  Lamb  slain," 
in  purpose  and  effect,  "  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  (/)  Hence  it  was,  that  the  elect,  who  lived 
before  the  incarnation  of  Christ,  were  saved  upon 
his  suretiship-engagements,  which,  for  them  as  well 
as  for  the  elect  under  the  present  dispensation,  he 
fulfilled  in  due  time,  (g)  Accordingly,  the  blood 
which  Christ  shed  is  "  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,"  the  blood  which  from  everlasting,  he  cov- 
enanted to  shed,  and  which  being  shed,  avails  to 
everlasting,  as  the  meritorious  cause  of  the  pardon 
and  cleansing  of  all  for  whom  it  was  shed.  (Ji)  To 
procede. 

As  Moses  was  a  type  of  Christ  in  the  redemption 
of  Israel,  so  also 

2.  In  their  deliverance. 

Did  Moses,  at  first,  instead  of  delivering  the  Is- 
raelites, only  awaken  the  apprehensions  of  Pharaoh 
concerning  them,  and  thereby  bring  upon  them  ad- 
ditional burdens'?  So  when  Christ,  by  the  Spirit 
operating  in  his  name,  begins  a  work  of  grace  in  the 
souls  of  his  people,  Satan,  afraid  of  losing  them,  la- 

(/)  Heb.  xii.  23.  Rev.  xiii.  8;  xx>  12,  15.  Jer.  L  20.  (g) 
Rom.  iii.  25,  26.  Heb.  ix.  15.  (h)  Heb.  xiii.  20;  ix.  14. 
1  John  i.  7,  9. 


63 

bors  to  terrify  them,  and,  by  legal  teachers,  compa- 
rable to  Pharaoh's  task-masters,  further  to  burden 
and  discourage  them ;  by  reason  of  which,  like  the 
Israelites,  they  are  tempted  to  view  their  condition  as 
rendered  worse  instead  of  better,  and  themselves  as 
injured  rather  than  benefited,  (i) 

Besides,  even  when  the  Israelites  had  consented  to 
go,  instead  of  being  led  immediately  into  liberty,  they 
were  led  into  greater  straits ;  for  Moses,  or  rather 
"God,"  by  him,  "led  the  people  about  through  the 
wilderness  of  the  Red  sea,"  and,  thereby,  into  further 
embarrasment,  and  apparently  into  greater  danger ; 
for  being,  by  divine  order,  encamped  before  Pi-ha-hi- 
roth,  while  they  had  Migdol,an  Egyptian  fortress,  on 
their  left,  and  JBaal-zephon,  a  fortified  temple,  on  their 
right,  they  had  Pharaoh,  with  his  armed  host,  in 
close  pursuit  of  them,  and  the  Red  sea,  without  any 
possible  means  of  crossing  it,immediately  before  them. 
Their  case  was  desperate  indeed :  they  could  neither 
retreat,  nor  turn  aside,  nor  advance ;  but  seemed  to  be 
their  enemy's  certain  prey.  Here  again,  they  mur- 
mured and  regretted  that  they  had  not  been  let  alone 
in  Egypt,  (k)  How  similar  is  the  case  of  awakened 
sinners !  For  although  "  made  willing  in  the  day  of 
the  Redeemer's  power,"  to  forsake  the  Egypt  of  the 
world,  they  are  not  immediately  led  into  liberty, 
through  faith  in  him ;  but  are  made  to  hear  and  learn 
of  the  Father  (1) — of  him  as  the  lawgiver  and  Judge, 
requiring  of  them  perfect  obedience  to  his  law  and 
satisfaction  to  his  justice  for  their  past  transgressions. 
Satan,  too  pursues  them,  as  Pharaoh  did  the  Israel- 
ites, with  claims  and  threatenings ;  and,  while  on  one 

(i)  Exo.  v.  4—21.     Lam,  iii.  2.     (k)  Exo.  xiv.  11,  12.     (/) 
John  vi.  45. 


S 


64 

hand,  "the  sons  of  Belial,"  like  the  soldiers  in  Mig- 
dol,  "  bend  their  bows  to  shoot  at  them  their  arrows, 
even  bitter  words"  of  reproach  and  slander,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  priests  of  antichrist,  like  those  of 
Baal-Zephon,  stand  ready  to  persuade  them  to  em- 
brace some  false  ground  of  hope,*  and,  on  their  re- 
jecting it,  to  revile  them,  as  heretics  or  fanatics,  while 
the  avenging  justice  of  God,  to  which  they  can  ren- 
der no  satisfaction,  like  an  impassable  sea  or  gulf, 
appears  immediately  before  them.  How  much  does 
their  condition  resemble  that  of  the  Israelites,  when 
they  were  "  entangled  in  the  land  and  shut  in  by  the 
wilderness."  And,  driven  like  them  to  despair  of 
deliverance,  like  them,  they  wish  they  had  been  per- 
mitted to  remain  undisturbed  in  their  former  state ; 
then,  say  they,  we  had  some  comfort,  but  now  we 
have  none,  and  fear  we  never  shall  have  any  again. 
(n)  Like  the  Israelites,  however,  they  are  shut  up, 
not  to  destruction,  but  to  salvation;  they  are  "shut 
up  unto  the  faith,"  the  object  of  faith,  "afterwards 
to  be  revealed."  (0)  Here  therefore,  despairing  like 
the  Israelites  of  all  creature-aid,  like  them,  they  are 
constrained  to  CRY  OUT  unto  the  LORD."  Nor  do 

*  If  not  the  hope  of  pagans  nor  that  of  papists,  yet  some  other 
equally  fallacious ;  such  as  reliance  on  past  morality,  or  on  pre- 
sent or  intended  repentance  and  reformation  ;  or  on  the  general 
mercy  of  God,  through  a  mediator  admitted  to  be  a  mere  creature  ; 
or,  according  to  others,  one  through  whom  all  mankind  are  going 
to  heaven,  irrespective  of  any  meetness  for  that  holy  state,  to  be 
wrought  in  them  by  the  Holy  Spirit :  whereas,  "  Except  a  man 
be  born  again,"  or  from  above,  "  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of 
God ;"  and  so  essential  is  HOLINESS,  that  we  are  exhorted  to  it  as 
that  "  without  which  no  man  shall  see,"  that  is,  enjoy  "  the  Lord." 
John  iii.  3.  Heb.  xii.  14. 

(n)  Jer.  iii.  35.    (o)  Gal.  iii.  23. 


65 

they  cry  in  vain.  For,  as  when  Moses,  by  divine  order, 
stretched  forth  the  marvelous  rod  over  the  Sea,  the 
Lord  caused  the  waters  thereof  to  separate  and  even 
to  become  a  wall  of  defense  to  Israel ;  so  when  Christ, 
in  compliance  with  the  Father's  will,  employs  his 
gospel,  "the  rod  of  his  strength  sent  forth  out  of  Zi- 
on,"  ( p)  in  revealing  to  sensible  sinners,  how  by  his 
obedience  and  sacrifice,  he  hath  answered,  for  them, 
all  the  demands  of  law  and  justice,  they  see  every  ob- 
stacle removed,  and,  in  due  time,  enter  into  joy  and 
peacein  believing:  "by  faith  we  have  peace  with  God, 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  (q)  Nay  more,  that 
very  justice,  which,  guarding  the  law  we  had  trans- 
gressed, cried  for  our  blood,  becomes  to  us  as  believers, 
like  the  waters  of  the  Sea  to  Israel,  a  wall  of  defense ; 
for  it  would  be  as  inconsistent  with  divine  justice, 
that  a  soul  found  in  Christ  should  be  lost,  as  that 
one  found  -out  of  him,  should  be  saved,  (r) 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked,  that  the  same  people, 
identically  and  numerically,  whom  the  Lord  redeem- 
ed by  the  lambs,  he  delivered  by  the  rod.  For,  ad- 
dressing him,  Moses  saith  "  Thou  in  thy  mercy  hast 
led  forth  the  people,  which  tliou  hast  redeemed;"  nor 
was  this  all;  he  guided  them  afterward:  "thou  hast 
guided  them  in  thy  strength  unto,"  or  toward  "  thy 
holy  habitation,"  Canaan  and  the  holy  mount  on 
which  the  temple  was  to  be  erected,  (s)  Can  it  then 
be  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  Christ  will  not  deliver 
by  his  grace,  all  whom  he  redeemed  by  his  blood  ? 
Or,  that  having  delivered  them,  he  will  not  afterward 
preserve  and  guide  them?  Obstacles  are,  in  this  case, 

(p)  Psal.  ex.  2.  (q)  Rom.  v.  1.  (r)  Rom.  iii.  19—26.  1  John 
i.  9.  (s)Exo.  xv.  13. 

9 


66 

of  no  consideration.  For  it  is  the  same  "  Arm  of  the 
Lord,"  (Christ  himself,  Is.  liii.  1.)  that  cut  Rahab,"* 
and  wounded  the  dragon,"f  that  "  dried  the  Sea  and 
made  the  depths  of  it  a  way  for  the  ransomed  to  pass 
over,"  that  is  to  accomplish  the  conversion  and  sub- 
sequent preservation  and  guidance  of  all  his  redeem- 
ed. "Therefore,"  indubitably,  "the  redeemed  of 
the  Lord  shall  return,"  shall  be  converted,  "  and  come 
with  singing  to  Zion  ;"  and  though  not,  in  all  instan- 
ces, to  the  visible  Church  on  earth,  yet,  without  a 
single  exception,  to  the  Zion  of  God  above ;  where 
"everlasting  joy  shall  be  upon  their  head,"  and  where 
"they  shall  obtain  gladness  and  joy,  and  sorrow  and 
mourning  shall  flee  away."  (f)  Virtually,  the  ene- 
mies of  the  LORD'S  redeemed,  like  those  of  Israel, 
are  "  all  dead  upon  the  shore."  For  the  elect,  Christ 
has  fulfilled  the  law  and  satisfied  the  .demands  of 
justice  ;  and  thereby  deprived  sin  of  its  strength  and 
even  death  of  it  sting.  Believers,  therefore,  amid 
all  their  troubles,  may  triumphantly  sing — "  The  sting 
of  death  is  sin  and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  law ; 
but  thanks  be  to  God  which  giveth  us  the  victory 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  (u)  Let  sensible 
sinners,  then,  like  the  Israelites  "  between  Migdol 
and  the  Sea,"  stand  waiting  for  the  SALVATION  of  the 
LORD,  and,  like  the  Israelites  on  the  banks  of  delive- 
rance, let  believers,  remembering  "  this  grace  wherein 
we  stand,  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God."  (w) 

The  change  of  mind,  too,  which  was  produced  in 
the  Israelites  by  their  deliverance,  serves  justly  toil- 

*  Egypt ;  Psal.  Ixxxvii.  4.  t  Pharaoh;  Ezek.  xxix.  3.  (t)  Is. 
li.  9—11.  and  liii.  1.  and  John  v.  25.  (u)  Col.  ii.  15.  1  Cor.  xv. 
56,  57.  (w)  Exo.  xiv.  13.  Rom.  v.  2. 


67 

lustrate  that  which  is  produced  in  the  minds  of  sin- 
ners by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  regeneration  ;  for  as,  upon 
their  deliverance,  "the  people"  of  Israel  "feared  the 
Lord  and  believed  the  Lord  and  his  servant  Moses  ;" 
(x)  so  all  who  are  delivered  from  bondage  through 
faith  in  Christ,  possess,  as  an  effect  of  regenerating 
grace,  a  filial  fear  of  God,  and  believe  both  the  Fa- 
ther and  the  Son.  (y) 

But  we  must  not  dismiss  this  article  without  remark- 
ing that  the  destruction  of  the  finally  impenitent,  like 
that  of  the  Egyptians,  is  of  themselves ;  for  as  the 
Egyptians  madly  rushed  into  the  sea,  so  impenitent 
sinners, "  strengthen  themselves  against  the  Almighty 
and  presumptuously  run  upon  the  thick  bosses  of  his 
bucklers ;"  (z)  and  hence,  as  the  same  Sea  which, 
through  faith  in  the  word  and  power  of  God,  proved 
"a  wall"  of  defense  to  Israel,  overwhelmed  the 
Egyptians ;  so  the  same  justice  which,  to  believers  in 
Christ,  affords  infallible  protection,  exposes  and  dooms 
unbelievers,  as  such,  to  inevitable  destruction:  "He 
that  believeth  on  the  Son,  hath  everlasting  life ;  and 
he  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life  ;  but 
the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him."  (a)  Moses  was 
a  type  of  Christ, 

3.  In  his  subsequent  government  of  Israel. 

In  the  short  time  of  solace  and  singing  which  he  af- 
forded to  Israel  after  their  deliverance,  we  behold  a 
type  of  that  period  of  repose  and  rejoicing  which  Christ 
affords  to  young  converts ;  "We  which  have  believed 
do  enter  into  rest ;"  and  "  believing  we  rejoice  with 
joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  (&) 

(x)  Exo.  xiv.  31.  (y)  Jer.  xxxii.  40.  Matt.  xvi.  16.  John  v. 
24.  (%)  Job.  xv.  25,  26.  (a)  John  iii.  36.  (b)  Heb.  iv.  3, 
1  Pet  i.  8. 


68 

Soon,  however,  the  case  of  the  Israelites  was  chang- 
ed.    "  Moses  brought  Israel  from  the  Red  sea,  and 
they  went  into  the  wilderness  of  Shur ;"  where  they 
thirsted  for  water,  and  found  none  but  what  was  bitter. 
The  application  to  young  converts  is  perfectly  easy. 
They,  too,  must  travel ;  and  in  the  wilderness  of  this 
world,  through  which  they  pass,  they  soon  begin  to 
realize  a  want  of  spiritual  comfort,  and  many  bitter 
disappointments  and  trials.    But  as  Moses,  by  means 
of  a  tree,  which  by  the  order  of  God  he  cast  into  those 
waters,  sweetened  them  ;  so  Christ,  by  the  doctrine  of 
his  meritorious  death  upon  the  tree  of  the  cross,  and 
to  which  he  submitted  in  obedience  to  his  heavenly 
Father's  will,  renders  all  the  afflictions  and  sorrows 
of  believers,  not  only  tolerable,  but  eventually  con- 
ducive to  their  edification  and  comfort,  (c) 

While  we  read  of  Israel,  led  by  Moses  to  Elim, 
where  were  twelve  wells  of  water  and  seventy  palm- 
trees  ;  how  pleasant  is  it  to  think  of  the  primitive 
Christians,  who  by  the  favor  of  Christ,  enjoyed  the 
ministry  of  the  twelve  apostles  and  seventy  disciples, 
and  of  believers  in  all  ages,  led  by  his  Spirit,  to  the 
pure  fountains  of  apostolic  doctrine,  which  are  the 
wells  of  salvation  flowing  from  Christ,  and  where, 
under  the  shadow  of  his  word  and  ordinances,  the  in- 
stituted signs  and  memorials  of  his  and  their  victory, 
they  enjoy  seasons  of  great  satisfaction  and  delight, 
even  while  in  the  wilderness,  (d)  And  though,  like 
the  Israelites  at  Elim,  "we  have  here  no  continuing 
city,"  let  us  recollect  and  rejoice,  that  we  "  have  a 
city  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  and  on  high"— 

(c)  2  Cor.  xii.  9, 10.     Philip,  iii.  7—11.     Gal.  vi.  14.    2  Tim. 
ii.  11,  12.     (d)  Cant.  ii.  3.     Psal.  Ixxxiv.  5—7. 


69 

that  every  moment  brings  us  nearer  to  it,  and  that 
when  arrived  there,  "  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne,  will  lead  us  to  living  fountains  of  wa- 
ters" and  put  into  our  hands  "  palms  of  everlasting 
victory."  (e) 

Pursuing  the  sacred  history,  we  presently  find  Israel 
"  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin,"  a  place  between  Elim  and 
mount  Sinai ;  where  they  were  destitute  of  bread  and 
apprehensive  of  famishing  for  the  want  of  it.  Let  this 
remind  us  that,  as  a  chastisement  for  their  neglect 
of  means  while  afforded,  and  as  a  trial  of  their  faith, 
when  these  are  withdrawn,  the  churches  and  indivi- 
duals of  spiritual  Israel,  are  sometimes  left  to  suffer  a 
want  of  gospel-ministers,  and  thereby,  "  a  famine  of 
hearing  the  word  of  the  Lord."  (/)  Did  the  Israelites, 
thus  circumstanced,  instead  of  crying  to  God  for  bread, 
murmur  against  him  and  his  servants,  Moses  and 
Aaron  1  How  often,  alas !  do  churches  and  individu- 
als, instead  of  "  praying  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that 
he  would  send  forth  more  laborers,"  indulge  in  mur- 
muring and  complaining  against  him,  for  leaving  them 
destitute;  or,  having  the  word  but  not  being  benefited 
by  it,  overlook  all  causes  of  their  barrenness,  existing 
in  themselves  and  their  lives— and,  instead  of  imploring 
the  influence  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  mortify  their  cor- 
ruptions, and  to  revive  their  souls,  spend  much  of  their 
time  in  listless  dejection,  or  in  finding  fault  with  their 
ministers,  as  though  the  application  and  success  of 
the  word  depended  on  them !  To  return — 

In  this  case,  observe,  Moses  could  afford  Israel  no 
relief;  and  in  which,  as  in  many  other  instances,  he 
was  a  figure  of  the  law,  which  can  neither  give  life  to 

(e)  Heb.  xiii.  14.     Rev.  vii.  9,  17.     (/)  Amos  viii.  11. 


70 

the  dead,  nor  food  to  the  living,  (g)  God,  however,  of 
his  mere  bounty,  without  their  asking  it,  and  even 
without  the  intercession  of  Moses  for  it,  rained  bread 
from  heaven  for  them,  to  wit,  the  manna.  And  ex- 
actly similar  was  his  original  gift  of  Christ,  to  his  un- 
deserving and  ill-deserving  people  ;  for,  unsought  by 
them,  and  "  without  the  law,"  and,  therefore,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  sovereign  grace  and  electing  love,  he 
bestowed  upon  them  Ms  unspeakable  gift.  The  same 
also  was  asserted  by  Christ  himself:  who  "  in  the 
days  of  his  flesh"  informed  the  Jews,  that  it  was  not 
Moses,  as  they  suggested,  but  God  who  had  given  them 
the  manna ;  and  that,  in  bestowing  that  favor  upon  na- 
tional Israel,  he  had  illustrated  his  eternal  design  to 
bestow  the  true  bread,  the  antitype  of  the  manna,  upon 
the  true  Israel,  the  antitype  of  that  chosen  nation : 
"  Moses,"  said  he,  "gave  you  not  that  bread  from 
heaven,"  meaning  the  manna,  "  but  my  Father,"  who 
gave  that,  now,  under  the  gospel, "  giveth  you,"  in  com- 
mon with  other  nations,  "  the  true  bread  from  heaven. 
For  the  Bread  of  God  is  he  which  cometh  down  from 
heaven,  and  giveth  life  unto  the  world."  (K)  In  their 
fallen  state,  the  world  of  mankind  are  all  morally  and 
legally  dead ;  (i)  and  as  Christ  is  the  life  of  all,  in  every 
age  and  nation  of  the  world,  that  have  ever  lived  or 
that  ever  will  live  a  life  of  grace  and  of  justification,  (&) 
it  is  obviously  true,  that  he  "  giveth  life  to  the  world,'' 
though  not  to  all  the  individuals  of  it:  for  some 
remain  in  unbelief  and  "  the  wrath  of  God  abideth 
upon  them."  (Z)  And  although  in  Christ,  "  all 

(g)  Rom.  viii.  3.  Gal.  ii.  19,  20.  (h)  John  vi.  32, 33.  («)  Rom.  v. 
12,  18.  (k)  John  v.  25.  Rom.  i '.  21—26.  Col.  iii.  3,  4.  (I)  John 
iii.  36. 


71 

the  nations  of  the  earth  are  blessed ;"  yet  when  he 
shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  nations  shall  be  gath- 
ered before  him, "  he  shall  separate  them,"  not  nation- 
ally but  individually,  "  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his 
sheep  from  the  goats  ;  and  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on 
his  right  hand  but  the  goats  on  his  left,  and  shall  say 
to  them  on  his  right  hand,  Come  ye  blessed,  &c.  and 
to  them  on  his  left  hand,  Depart  ye  cursed,  &c.  "  And 
these  shall  go  away  into  kolasin  aionion,  punishment 
eternal ;  but  the  righteous  into  zoen  aionion,  life  eter- 
nal, (m)  Nor  does  the  type  admit  of  any  other  ap- 
plication :  God,  indeed,  rained  the  manna  in  the  open 
wilderness ;  yet  for  none  but  his  chosen  Israel,  nor  did 
any  but  Israelites  live  by  it ;  so,  although  he  sent  his 
Son  into  the  world,  and  gave  him  power  over  all  flesh : 
yet  none  but  the  elect  have  grace  in  him,  or  live 
through  him.  (n)  It  is  only  to  the  sheep  that  he  gives 
eternal  life,  (p)  Believing  the  Scriptures,  none  can 
believe  that  all  the  individuals  of  national  Israel  will 
be  saved,  and  much  less  that  none  of  other  nations 
will  be  saved ;  yet  "  in  the  Lord,"  the  Lord  Christ, 
"  shall  all  the  seed  of  Israel  be  justified  and  shall  glo- 
ry;" (p)  by  whom,  therefore,  must  be  meant  the 
true  Israel  of  all  nations,  and  who  are  the  spiritual  off- 
pring  of  Christ,  the  antitype  of  Jacob,  the  progeni- 
tor of  national  Israel. 

Chiefly,  however,  the  manna  was  a  type  of  Christ, 
as  he  is  granted  to  his  people  and  enjoyed  by  them, 
in  the  use  of  instituted  means. 

The  clouds  from  which  the  manna  was  rained,  were 
a  fit  emblem  of  the  word  and  ordinances,  from  which 

(m)  OeD.  xxii.  18.  Matt.  xxv.  31—34,  41,  46.  (n)  2  Tim.  i. 
9.  1  John  iv.  9.  (o)  John  x.  28.  and  xvii.  2.  (p)  Is.  xlv.  25. 
Rom.  iv.  16. 


72 

we  receive  our  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  by  means 
of  which,  though  mysteriously,  he  becomes  the  sus- 
tenance of  our  souls,  (q) 

The  manna  seems  to  have  been  furnished  to  the 
Israelites  through  the  instrumentality  of  angels ;  (r) 
so,  in  the  gospel  and  its  ordinances,  Christ  is  exhibit- 
ed to  believers  through  the  instrumentality  of  his 
ministers,  whom  he  expressly  calls  angels,  or  messen- 
gers, as  the  word  signifies,  (s)  By  them,  according 
to  promise,  he  feeds  his  people  "with  knowledge  and 
understanding"  of  himself  and  his  fulness ;  and  there- 
by comforts  and  edifies  them,  (f)  "  We"  said  Paul, 
"are  helpers  of  your  joy."  2  Cor.  i.  24.  Apollos 
"helped  them  much  who  had  believed  through  grace." 
Acts  xviii.  27.  And, by  the  record  of  the  injunction 
delivered  to  Peter,  Christ  is  still  saying  to  every  gos- 
pel-minister, Feed  my  sheep— feed  my  lambs,  (u) 

The  Israelites,  though  redeemed  by  the  paschal 
lambs,  never  lived  on  manna,  till  they  were  brought 
out  of  Egyptian  bondage.  So  the  elect,  though  re- 
deemed by  Christ,  never  live  by  faith  upon  him,  as  he 
is  the  Bread  of  life,  till,  being  regenerated,  they  are 
delivered  from  the  tyranny  of  Satan  and  the  bondage 
of  the  law,  as  a  covenant  of  works  :  "  The  life,"  said 
Paul,  "  which  I  now  live" — Now,  observe,  after  his 
conversion — "  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God, 
who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me."  Gal.  ii.  20. 

To  exercise  the  faith  of  the  Israelites,  and  to  teach 
them  their  continual  dependence  upon  the  favor  of 
God,  the  manna,  though  in  store,  was  not  all  dispen- 

(q)  Is.  v.  6.  Hosea  ii.  21, 22.  Deut.  xxxii.  2.  Psal.  Ixxii.  6.  Eph. 
iii.  16—19.  (r)  Psal.  Ixxviii.  25.  (s)  Rev.  i.  20.  (t)  Jer.  iii.  15. 
Is.  xl.  i.  2.  Eph.  iv.  11, 12.  (u)  John  xxi.  15—17. 


73 

sed  to  them  at  once,  nor  even  by  the  year,  or  month, 
or  week,  but  by  the  day;  and,  that  spiritual  Israelites 
may  learn  to  walk  by  faith,  and  under  an  abiding  sense 
of  their  needy  and  dependent  condition,  their  supplies 
from  Christ  are  dispensed  in  a  similar  manner ;  for, 
although,  "  It  pleased  the  Father  that  in  him  should 
all  fulness  dwell ;"  (w)  it  is  nevertheless,  only  day  by 
day,  that  "our  inward  man  is  renewed"  from  that 
fulness,  (x)  If  a  surplus  of  the  manna  bred  worms  in 
the  vessels  of  the  Israelites,  how  much  more  would  a 
super-abundance  of  gifts  and  knowledge,  or  of  tem- 
poral riches,  tend  to  breed  and  nourish  pernicious 
worms  in  the  vessels  of  our  depraved  hearts  !  Gifts 
alone  make  a  man  only  as  sounding  brass  and  a  tink- 
ling cymbal;  1  Cor.  xiii.  1,  2;  knowledge  puff eth  up ; 
Chap.  viii.  1 ;  and  the  care  of  this  world  and  the  de- 
ceitfulness  of  riches  choke  the  word  and  render  the 
hearer  unfruitful.  Matt.  xiii.  7,  22.  From  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Israelites,  however,  in  gathering  the  man- 
na, believers  are  encouraged  to  hope,  that,  in  the  dili- 
gent use  of  means,  God  will  bestow  upon  them  such 
a  measure  even  of  temporal  blessings,  as  in  their  seve- 
ral stations,  will  best  promote  their  real  comfort  and 
usefulness  in  the  church  and  in  the  world :  "  As  it  is 
written,  He  that  gathered  much  had  nothing  over ; 
having  to  distribute  a  part  to  those  who  were  deficient ; 
and  he  that  gathered  little  had  no  lack ;"  his  deficien- 
cy being  supplied  from  the  abundance  of  others. 
2  Cor.  viii.  14,  15.  Exo.rxvL  17—20.* 

To  prove  their  faith  and  obedience,  though  the 
manna  was  freely  given,  the  Israelites  were  required 
daily  to  go  out  to  gather  it ;  (z)  the  doing  of  which  im- 

(w)  Col.  i.  19.  (x)  2  Cor.  iv.  16.  *  Superior  gifts  and  knowledge, 
too,  are  bestowed  on  some,  for  the  benefit  of  others.  1  Cor.  xiv. 
1 — 6.  Eph.  iii.  1 — 9.  and  many  other  places,  (z)  Exo.  xvi.  4. 

10 


74 

plied  faith  in  the  power  and  promise  of  God  to  furnish 
it,  and  was  an  act  of  obedience  to  his  revealed  will ; 
so  although  Christ  is  freely  given,  God  has  appointed 
means,  in  the  use  of  which  we  are  to  enjoy  him ;  such 
as  reading  the  icord,  hearing  the  gospel,  attending  or- 
dinances, prayer,  &c. ;  and  if  our  faith  is  of  the  right 
kind  and  in  proper  exercise,  it  leads  us  daily  to  the 
Bible  and  to  the  Throne,  seeking  spiritual  supplies 
from  Christ,  and,  as  opportunities  are  afforded,  to  pub- 
lic means  also,  believing  that  God  has  appointed  them, 
and  that  he  has  connected  our  growth  in  grace  and  in 
the  knowledge  of  Christ,  with  the  diligent  and  prayer- 
ful observance  of  them,  (a)  Yet,  how  necessary,  alas, 
are  the  exhortations — "  Search  the  Scriptures — Pray 
without  ceasing — Not  forsaking  the  assembling  of 
yourselves  together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is."  (6) 
And  how  deplorably  languid,  must  be  ihe  faith  and 
hope  and  zeal  of  those  professors  who,  on  slight  pre- 
tenses, can  stay  at  home,  time  after  time,  while  the 
sacred  manna  is  dropping  within  their  reach,  and  es- 
pecially at  their  own  respective  places  of  worship, 
where,  by  church-relation  and  covenant-obligation, 
they  are  solemnly  engaged  to  be  found !  It  is,  in  ef- 
fect, saying  of  Christ,  or,  at  least  of  his  word  and 
ordinances,  as  the  ungrateful  Israelites  said  of  the 
manna,  "our  soul  lotheth  this  light  bread."  (c) 

On  the  sixth  day,  preparatory  to  the  Sabbath,  there 
fell  a  double  portion  of  the  manna,  and  the  people 
gathered  accordingly,  (d)  Did  this  typically  signify, 
that  believers,  at  the  close  of  life,  and  the  church,  in 
her  latter  day  glory,  should  have  a  double  portion — 

(a)  Is.  xl.  31,  1  Pet.  ii.  2.  and  2  Pet.  iii.  18.  (b)  John  v.  39. 
1  Thess.  v.  17.  Heb.  x.  25.  (c)  Num.  xxi.  5.  (d)  Exo.  xvi.  22—26. 


75 

a  very  abundant  knowledge  of  Christ  and  very  large 
communications  of  grace  from  him,  preparatory  to  the 
heavenly,  the  eternal  sabbath '!  (e)  During  the  Sabbath, 
indeed,  as  well  as  other  days,  the  Israelites  lived  on 
manna,  yet  without  the  labor  of  gathering  it ;  so 
"  Christ  who  is  our  life"  on  earth,  will  be  our  life  in 
heaven,  yet  there  without  any  use  of  means,  or  efforts 
of  faith.  To  signify  this,  Christ  in  heaven,  is  likened 
to  the  golden  pot  of  manna>  which,  by  divine  order, 
was  deposited  in  the  holy  of  holies.  (/) 

The  Lord  also  gave  the  Israelites  flesh,  and  that  to 
satiety,  (g)  This  likewise  has  been  considered  by 
some  as  a  type  of  Christ,  whose  "  flesh  is  meat  indeed 
and  whose  blood  is  drink  indeed  ;"  but,  as  the  quails 
were  not,  like  the  manna,  from  above,  and  as  their 
flesh  is  never,  like  that  bread,  called  "spiritual 
meat,"  (A)  I  understand  them  to  have  been  an  emblem 
of  worldly  things,  such  as  riches,  honors  and  sensual 
gratifications,  of  which  God,  in  his  Providence,  (and 
sometimes  in  a  way  of  chastisement)  suffers  his  peo- 
ple to  partake,  according  to  their  carnal  appetites ; 
and  which,  being  so  granted,  like  the  quails  to  Israel, 
prove,  in  the  end,  a  plague  rather  than  a  comfort — a 
curse  rather  than  a  blessing.  At  best,  they  can  only 
feed  the  body  and  gratify  the  carnal  mind ;  and,  in 
many  instances,  like  the  residue  of  the  quails,  "they 
take  wings  and  fly  away,"  while,  like  the  Israelites, 
we  are  yet  in  the  wilderness,  (i) 

No  sooner  were  the  Israelites  supplied  with  bread, 
than  we  find  them  again  in  distress  for  the  want  of 

(e)  Psal.  xxxvii.  37.  Is.  xxx.  26.  (/)  Exo.  xvi.  33,  34.  Heb, 
ix.  4,  24.  Rev.  ii.  17.  (g)  Psal.  Ixxviii.  29.  (A)  1  Cor.  x.  3, 
(i)  Psal.  Ixxviii.  30,  31. 


76 

water ;  and  as  full,  too,  as  ever  of  murmuring  against 
God  and  against  Moses.  Yet  Moses  cried  unto  the 
Lord  on  their  behalf,  and  the  Lord  having  specified  a 
certain  rock,  directed  him  to  smite  it  with  the  rod 
in  his  hand,  assuring  him  that  water  should  flow 
from  it.  (&)  And,  that  the  miracle,  according  to  pro- 
mise, was  wrought — that  water  in  great  abundance 
flowed  from  the  rock  when  smitten,  is  asserted  by  the 
inspired  Psalmist.  (/)  In  this  instance,  Moses  sus- 
tained a  twofold  character:  in  his  intercession,  he 
typified  Christ  interceding  on  behalf  of  his  guilty 
people ;  but  in  smiting  the  rock,  he  represented  God 
the  Father,  smiting  with  the  rod  of  Justice,  the  hu- 
man nature  of  Christ,  in  which,  as  our  substitute, "  he 
was  wounded  for  our  transgressions  and  bruised  for 
our  iniquities  ;"  (m)  and  who,  being  crucified,  became 
"a  fountain  open  for  sinanduncleaness,"  and  thereby, 
a  fountain  of  life  and  of  all  grace  and  spiritual  conso- 
lation, (n)  That  such  is  the  mystical  signification  of 
this  rock,  we  have  the  testimony  of  an  apostle ;  and 
who  also  seems  to  concur  with  many  Rabbinical  wri- 
ters in  asserting,  that,  as  a  constant  miracle,  this  rock 
itself  as  well  as  the  water  flowing  from  it,  followed 
the  Israelites  through  the  wilderness  ;  "they  drank," 
saith  he,  "  of  that  spiritual,"  that  mystical  "  rock,  that 
followed  them ;  and  that  rock  was  Christ ;"  not  liter- 
ally, but  mystically,  as  the  water  flowing  from  it,  was 
a  type  of  the  gospel  and  of  all  spiritual  blessings, 
flowing  from  Christ  and  accompanying  the  church 
during  her  pilgrimage  in  the  wilderness  of  the  gen- 
tiles, (o) 

(k)  Exo.  xvi.  3—6.  (/)  Psalm  cv.  41.  (m)  Is.  liii.  5,  6,  10. 
(n)  Zech.  xiii.  1.  John  vii.  37 — 39.  (o)  1  Cor.  x.  4.  comp.  Hosea 
ii.  14,  15. 


77 

This  transaction  took  place  at  Rephidim,  soon  af- 
ter Israel  left  Egypt ;  (p)  but  the  water,  on  account  of 
their  unbelief  and  rebelion,  being  stayed,  in  the  first 
month  of  the  fortieth,  the  last  year  of  their  wilder- 
ness-journey, the  same  was  repeated  at  Kadesh.  (q) 
But,  as  Christ  was  not  literally  crucified  a  second 
time,  I  understand  this  as  typifying  that  second,  that 
new  opening  up  of  the  way  of  salvation  through  him, 
which  will  be  granted  to  the  Jews  in  the  latter  day ; 
when  the  gospel,  which,  for  their  unbelief  and  con- 
tempt of  the  Messiah,  has  long  since  been  taken  from 
them,  will  be  restored  ;  and  when  he  shall  pour  upon 
them  "  the  spirit  of  Grace  and  of  supplication  and  they 
shall  look  upon  him  whom  they  have  pierced  and 
mourn,  (r)  And,  as  the  Israelites  at  Kadesh,  witness- 
ed those  faults  and  imperfections  in  Moses  and  Aaron, 
for  which  God  denied  them  the  honor  of  bringing  the 
people  into  Canaan,  nay,  soon  removed  them  by  death ; 
so  at  the  time  of  their  calling,  the  Jews,  regenerated 
and  enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  will  discover  the 
incompetency  of  the  Mosaic  covenant  and  the  Aaronic 
priesthood  to  bring  them  to  heaven ;  and,  abandon- 
ing both,  as  being  divinely  abrogated,  will  "  seek  the 
Lord  their  God  and  David  their  king,"  their  long 
despised  Messiah ;  "  and  shall  fear  the   Lord  and 
his  goodness  in  the  latter  days."  (s) 

Next  we  find  Israel  attacked  by  Amalek,  a  formi- 
dable enemy,  (t)  Amalek,  as  remarked  in  the  former 
discourse,*  seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  wandering 
monarch,  followed  by  a  large  host  and  committing  out- 

(p)  Exo.  xvii.  1 — 7.  (q)  Num.  xx.  1 — 11.  comp.  chap,  xxxiii. 
14,  36.  (r)  Matt.  xxi.  43.  Zech.  xii.  10—14.  (s)  Num.  xx.  12,  13, 
24,  and  xxvii.  12—14.  Hosea  iii.  5.  (t)  Exo.  xvii.  8,  &c.  *  Page  26. 


78 

rages  wherever  he  went.*  May  he  not  justly  be  view- 
ed as  an  emblem  of  Satan,  who  being  "  the  prince  of 
the  devils,"  and  "  the  god  of  the  world,"  has  in  his 
train  and  under  his  influence,  a  large  host  both  of 
fallen  angels  and  of  wicked  men,  and  who  as  a  ra- 
venous lion,  walketh  about  seeking  whom  he  may  de- 
vour f  Hence  Amalek,  in  his  attack  upon  Moses  and 
Israel  in  the  wilderness  of  Rephidim,  might  typify 
Satan  assaulting  Christ  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  and 
the  church,  in  the  days  of  her  pilgrimage,  in  the  wil- 
derness of  this  world.  But  as  Christ,  in  person,  van- 
quished him,  the  church,  by  consequence,  is  secure 
of  victory  over  him.  (u)  This  is  strongly  set  forth  in 
the  type,  in  which  Moses  and  Joshua  are  strange- 
ly united.  Moses  having  given  directions  for  con- 
ducting the  war,  ascended  an  eminence,  with  the  mi- 
raculous rod  in  his  hand,  leaving  Joshua  to  fight  the 
battle.  In  this  remarkable  occurrence,  therefore,  we 
have  a  twofold  type  of  Christ :  In  Moses  we  behold 
him,  as  making  known  his  will  concerning  the  spiri- 
tual warfare  of  the  church,  and  then  ascending  to 
heaven,  to  act  as  our  intercessor  there;  and  though 
he  has  withdrawn  the  rod  of  miracles,  yet,  in  Joshua 
we  behold  him,  as  by  his  Spirit  and  Providence,  he 
is  nevertheless,  "the  leader  and  commander"  of  his 
spiritual  Israel  upon  earth ;  and  having  all  gospel- 
ministers  and  other  saints  under  his  direction — all  the 
holy  angels,  as  "  ministering  spirits,"  at  his  command 
— and  "all  principalities  and  powers"  whether  on 
earth  or  in  hell,  under  his  control — he  cannot  possibly 
fail  of  complete  and  everlasting  victory.  The  suc- 

*  The  author  of  Dibre,  Hajamin  makes  the  army  of  Amalek  to 
have  consisted  of  an  immense  number,  all  exercising  divinations 
and  enchantments.  See  Bp.  Patrick  on  Exo.  xvii.  8.  (u)  Matt, 
jv.  1 — 11.  Rom.  xvi.  20. 


79 

cess  of  Israel  depended  on  the  lifting  up  of  the 
hands  of  Moses,  on  the  chosen  hill ;  and  much  more 
does  that  of  spiritual  Israel  depend  on  the  lifting  up 
of  the  hands  of  our  divine  intercessor,  on  the  hea- 
venly mount.  In  Moses,  indeed,  there  was  weakness ; 
and  when,  through  weariness,  his  hands  hung  down, 
Amalek  prevailed  ;  which  being  discovered,  he  was 
placed  upon  a  rock  and  stayed  by  Aaron  and  Hur ; 
"  so  that  his  hands  were  kept  steady  until  the  going 
down  of  the  sun,"  when  the  victory  in  favor  of  Is- 
rael was  complete.  But  Christ,  with  untiring  strength 
as  well  as  inflexible  fidelity,  "  ever  liveth  to  make 
intercession  for  us  ;"  and  hence,  till  the  sun  of  natu- 
ral life,  in  every  saint,  shall  go  down  in  death,  and 
till  the  whole  day  of  the  church  in  this  world  shall 
end,  his  intercession  will  avail  in  heaven,  while  upon 
earth,  his  infinite  wrisdom  shall  conduct  the  war  in 
which  we  are  involved,  and  his  almighty  grace  and 
providence  fight  every  battle,  in  which  we  shall  be 
engaged ;  for  in  these  he  will  neither  intermit  nor 
relax,  till  Satan  shall  be  chained  in  hell,  (w)  and 
Zion  glorified  in  heaven.  (x) 

Admitting  Amalek  to  have  been  an  emblem  of  Sa- 
tan, the  two  kings  of  the  Amorites,  Sihon  and  Og, 
maybe  viewed  as  emblems  of  the  world  and  ihefiesh, 
and  the  Midianites,  a  set  of  mungrel  Israelites,  (y) 
with  the  mercenary  Balaam  on  their  side,  as  prefigu- 
ring mystical  Babylon,  consisting  of  nominal  chris- 
tians  and  encouraged  by  a  venal  priesthood;  But  as 
those  enemies  of  national  Israel  were  all  conquered 
by  Moses  ;  (z)  so  all  the  correspondent  enemies  of 

(w)  Rev.  xx.  1—10.  (x)  Eph.  v.  27.  (y)  Gen.  xxv.  2.  I 
Chron.  i.  32.  (z)  Exod.  xvii.  10—13.  Numb,  xxi,  21—27,  and 
Chap.  xxxi.  1— & 


80 

spiritual  Israel  shall  be  conquered,  nay,  destroyed  by 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  (a)  and,  as  upon  the  conquest 
of  their  enemies,  Israel  entered  into  their  promised 
inheritance,  so,  upon  the  destruction  of  their  body 
of  sin,  "the  spirits  of  the  just  are  made  perfect,"  (b) 
and,  upon  the  destruction  of  mystical  Babylon,  the 
church  shall  enter  into  her  millenial,  and,  eventual- 
ly, into  her  heavenly  glory,  (c) 

As  with  Amalek  and  with  every  other  enemy,  the 
Israelites  were  divinely  authorized  to  maintain  per- 
petual war,  (d)  so  both  the  saints  individually  and 
the  church  collectively  are  divinely  authorized,  yea,  re- 
quired to  maintain  an  unceasing  war  with  Satan — 
sin — the  world — the  flesh,  and  with  all  antichristian 
principles  and  practices,  till  the  contest  shall  issue  in 
our  everlasting  victory  and  triumph,  (e) 

What  if  Satan,like  Arad,(jf )  succede  in  taking  some 
of  the  camp  prisoners  1  They  are  either  hypocrites 
whom  he  may  devour,  (g)  or  saints  whom,  for  their 
good,  he  is  permitted  to  buffet.  (Ji)  And,  what  if?  like 
Amalek,  he  is  suffered  to  smite  and  fell  some  of  the 
lingering  1  («')  Let  this  remind  us  that  we  are  in  an 
enemy's  land  and  excite  us  to  greater  diligence ;  (&) 
or,  if  some  must  die  by  the  hand  of  persecution,  they 
will  only,  as  were  the  martyrs  before  them,  be  taken 
away  from  the  evil  to  come,  and  be  brought  the 
sooner  to  that "  rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people 
of  God."  (I) 

(a)  Heb.  ii.  14.  1  John  iii.  8.  Rom.  vi.  13,  and  vii.  24/25. 
John  xvi.  33.  Rev.  xi.  18.  and  xviii  and  xviii.  chapters,  (b)  Heb. 
xii.  23.  (c)  Is.  xxv.  7,  8.  and  xxiv  1,  2.  Rev.  xix.  7,  and  chap.  xxi. 
(d)  Exo.  xvii.  16.  Num.  xxi.  33,  35.  Deut.  vii.  2.  (e)  James  iv. 
7.  Rom.  vi.  12,  13.  xii.  2.  xiii.  14.  1  Tim.  iv.  7, 8.  Rev.  ii.  10. 
(/)  Num.  xxi.  1.  (#)  1  Pet.  v.  8.  (h)  1  Cor.  v.  5.  2.  Cor.  xii.  7. 
(i)  Deut.  xxv.  18.  2  Pet.  iii.  17.  {k)  2  Pet.  i.  5—10.  (I)  Is.  Ivii. 
1.  Htib.  iv.  9. 


81 

Another  and  a  very  instructive  instance  in  which 
Moses  was  a  type  of  Christ,  is  recorded  in  the  twen- 
ty-first chapter  of  the  book  of  Numbers.  Here  we 
find  the  Israelites,  while  compassing  the  land  of  Edom, 
becoming  greatly  discouraged,  and  outrageous  in 
their  murmurings  against  God  and  against  Moses,  for 
bringing  them  out  of  Egypt,  to  die,  as  they  supposed, 
in  the  wilderness.  Their  course  was  retrograde  and 
their  way  rough.  "There  is,"  said  they,  "no  water 
and  our  soul  lotheth  this  light  bread,"  meaning  the 
manna.  How  similar,  alas,  are  sometimes  the  condi- 
tion and  complaints  of  professors,  yea  of  real  saints, 
under  the  present  dispensation !  We  seem,  at  times, 
to  be  going  backward  rather  than  forward  ;  our  way 
is  rough — full  of  stumbling  stones  and  unexpected 
trials ;  the  water  of  comfort  fails,  and,  having  lost  our 
spiritual  relish,  our  souls  almost  lothe  the  gospel 
itself;  yea,  like  Asaph,  we  are  tempted  to  think  that 
even  the  Egyptians  of  this  world  are  better  off  than 
we.  (ra) 

To  convince  the  Israelites  of  their  sin  and  of  their 
dependence  upon  divine  favor,  "  The  Lord  sent  fiery 
serpents  among  the  people,  and  they  bit  the  people, 
and  much  people  of  Israel  died." 

In  a  typical  point  of  view,  this  historical  fact  has, 
in  my  humble  opinion,  been  constantly  misunderstood. 
As  far  as  my  reading  and  hearing  on  the  subject  have 
extended,  it  has  always  been  understood  as  designed 
to  illustrate  the  moral  depravity  infused  into  our  first 
parents  by  the  old  serpent,  the  devil,  and  which,  by 
ordinary  generation,  has  infected  all  their  posterity 
with  the  mortal  poison.  This,  in  itself,  is  indeed  an 

(m)  Psal.  Ixxiii.  3. 
11 


82 

awful  and  lamentable  truth  ;  (n)  yet  not  what  Is  herein 
typically  illustrated.  It  is  not  supported  by  analogy. 
The  venom  of  the  old  serpent  is,  in  Adam's  family, 
hereditary ;  that  of  the  Jury  serpents  was  only  in 
those  who  were  personally  bitten  of  them  ;  the  bite 
of  the  old' serpent  infused  sin ;  that  of  these  serpents 
was  a  punishment  for  sin.  Wherefore,  I  understand 
the  fiery  serpents  to  have  been  an  emblem  of  the  curse, 
including  all  the  evils,  temporal  and  eternal,  to  which 
mankind  are  liable  in  consequence  of  sin;  (0)  and 
their  fiery  slings  as  intended  to  illustrate  the  effects 
of  the  curse  in  common,  but  especially  the  stings  of  a 
guilty  conscience;  which,  in  many  instances,  are  ex- 
ceedingly fiery  and  distressing ;  the  law  is  called  a 
fiery  laio,  and  is  said  to  work  wrath ;  (j?)  the  guilt  of 
having  transgressed  it,  lying  upon  the  conscience,  is 
"  a  burden  too  heavy"  for  a  poor  sinner  to  bear,  and 
fills  him  with  fearful  apprehensions  of  everlasting 
burnings,  (q)  Conviction,  therefore,  like  the  sting  of 
the  fiery  serpents,  does  not  communicate  sin,  but 
gives  keen  distress  on  account  of  it.  (r) 

Convictions  are  of  two  kinds ;  those  which  carnal 
persons  may  have,  and  those  which  are  peculiar  to  the 
regenerate. 

The  convictions  of  the  carnal  may  be  such  as  arise 
entirely  from  the  light  of  nature :  such  are  those  of 
the  heathen,  who,  though  they  have  not  the  written 
law,  show  the  work  of  the  law  of  nature  written  in 
their  hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness 
whether  their  conduct,  according  to  that  law,  be  right 

(n)  Gen.  vi.  5.  Psal.  li,  5.  Rom.  v.  12.  Job.  xiv.  4.  (o)  Gen. 
ii.  16,  17.  iii.  16—19.  Prov.  iii.  33.  Zech.  v.  3,  4.  Job.  xxi.  17. 
Prov.  xxvi.  2.  (p)  Context,  ver.  2.  Rom.  iv.  15.  (q)  Psal.  xxxviii. 
4.  Is.  xxxiii.  14.  (r)  Actsii.  37. 


83 

or  wrong,  and  their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing 
or  else  excusing,  both  themselves  and  one  another ;  (s) 
or  they  may  be  such  as  are  produced  partly  by  the 
light  of  nature  and  partly  by  the  testimony  of  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  for,  as  the  Spirit  strove  with  [not  in]  the  an- 
tediluvians, in  the  ministry  of  Noah,  and  with  [not 
in]  the  Jews,  in  the  messages  of  Moses  and  the  pro- 
phets, (£)  so,  in  the  written  word  and  in  the  labors 
of  all  whom  He  qualifies  to  preach,  He  strives  with 
[not  in]  mankind  under  the  present  dispensation. 
Thus  he  testifies  to  them  their  guilt  and  condemna- 
tion as  transgressors  of  the  law ;  (u)  their  aggravated 
criminality  in  disbelieving  the  record  that  God  has 
given  of  his  Son,  (to)  and  that  unless  born  again  and 
brought  to  experience  "  repentance  toward  God  and 
faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  they  must  perish 
for  ever,  (x)  This  external  testimony  of  the  Spirit, 
however,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  his  internal 
work  of  regeneration.  The  former,  when  alone,  al- 
ways has  been  and  always  will  be  resisted ;  (y)  but 
the  latter  never  has  been  and  never  can  be  rendered 
ineffectual.  It  is  a  work  in  which  he  quickens  the 
dead,  enlightens  the  blind,  and  makes  the  rebelious 
willing ;  in  a  word,  it  is  that  good  work,  which  having 
begun,  he  will  perform,  (z) 

This  will  more  fully  appear  while  we  notice  those 
convictions  which  are  peculiar  to  the  regenerate. 
These,  while  they  include  all  that  is  discovered  by 
the  light  of  nature,  and  are  greatly  promoted  by  the 

(5)  Rom.  ii.  14,  15.  (t)  Num.  xi.  25—29.  Neh.  ix.  30.  Zech. 
vii.  12.  (u)  Rom.  iii.  19,  23.  (w)  John  iii.  19.  1  John  v.  10. 
(x)  John  iii.  7.  Acts  xx.  21.  Luke  xiii.3,  5.  (y)  Ger.  vi.  3,  5.  Acts 
vii.  51—53.  (z)  Eph.  ii.  1,  5.  2  Cor.  iv.  6.  1  Thess.  i.  5,  6.  Psai. 
ex.  3.  Philip,  i.  6. 


84 

external  testimony  of  the  Spirit,  arise,  nevertheless, 
chiefly  from  a  knowledge  and  experience  which,  in 
the  former  case,  do  not  exist.  Quickened  and  en- 
lightened by  the  internal  operations  of  the  Holy  Spi- 
rit, the  regenerate  understand  and  realize  spiritual 
things  as  others  neither  do  nor  can.  (a)  While  the 
carnal,  discovering  only  the  letter  of  the  law,  feel  con- 
victed merely  of  their  actual  sins ;  the  regenerate 
discovering  its  spirituality,  perceive,  that  it  requires 
purity  within  as  well  as  without — holiness  of  nature 
as  well  as  of  life ;  and  that  for  their  want  of  confor- 
mity to  it,  as  well  as  for  their  transgressions  of  it,  they 
are  under  its  curse.  (&)  "  By  the  law"  of  God,  thus 
understood,  "is  the  knowledge  of  sin,"  and  of  the 
revealed  fact,  that "  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall 
no  flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight."  (c)  Nor  does  this 
knowledge  of  the  law  lead  a  sinner  to  blame  it,  as 
being  too  strict,  but  to  commend  it  and  to  take  all 
the  blame  of  his  condemnation  by  it,  to  himself. 
Like  Paul,  he  says,  "the  law  is  holy,  just,  good,  and 
spiritual,  but  I,"  as  to  my  fallen  nature,  "  am  carnal ;" 
and,  being  unable  to  answer  the  demands  of  divine 
justice  against  me,  like  an  insolvent  debtor  or  a  pro- 
scribed criminal,  I  am  "  sold  under  sin."  (d)  Most 
clearly,  however,  the  regenerate  discover  the  excel- 
lence of  the  law  in  the  glass  of  the  gospel.  Herein 
they  behold  the  Son  of  God,  in  human  nature,  "made 
under,"  and  obeying  that  very  law  which  they  have 
transgressed  and  dishonored :  and  while  they  learn 
the  holiness  of  its  precepts  from  the  perfection  of  his 
life,  they  learn,  equally,  the  righteousness  of  its  pen- 
alty, together  with  the  inflexibility  of  divine  justice, 
the  infinite  evil  of  sin  and  the  wonders  of  sovereign 

(a)  1  Cor.  ii.  10, 14.  (b)  Gal.  iii.  10.  (c)  Rom.  hi.  20.    (d)  Rom. 
vii.  12,  14. 


85 

LOVE,  from  his  agonizing  prayer  in  Gethsemane  and 
his  dying  groans  on  Calvary,  (e) 

"  The  luster  of  that  holy  law, 
Thus  honored,  fills  our  minds  with  awe  ; 
And  Calv'ry's  scenes  at  once  reveal, 
More  love  and  wrath  than  heaven  and  hell." 

As  the  convictions  of  the  carnal  and  those  of  there- 
generate,  differ  in  their  causes,  so  also  in  their  results. 
Those  of  the  carnal,  either  prove  like  the  goodness 
of  Ephraim  which  was  "  as  a  morning  cloud  and  the 
early  dew"  that  "  goeth  away ;"  (/)  or  they  drive  their 
subjects  to  despair,  and  in  some  instances  to  suicide, 
as  in  the  case  of  Judas.  Thus,  as  under  the  stings 
of  the  fiery  serpents,  "much  people  of  carnal  Israel 
died,"  and  without  any  knowledge  of  the  typical 
remedy ;  so,  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  many  under  mere 
natural  and  legal  convictions,  and  after  having  felt 
them  more  or  less,  for  months  or  perhaps  for  years, 
at  length  die  without  any  saving  knowledge  of  Christ, 
and  consequently  under  the  curse.  "  The  sorrow  of 
the  world  worketh  death."  (g)  But  the  result  of  those 
convictions  of  sin,  which  the  regenerate  feel,  is  not  so : 
these  indeed,  also  produce  death,  but  it  is  a  death 
which  is  in  order  to  life ;  a  death  to  the  law,  to  all 
hopes  of  salvation  by  their  obedience  to  it ;  and  which 
is  indispensable  to  an  experimental  life  of  justifica- 
tion in  Christ.  (]i)  Thus  "  godly  sorrow  worketh  re- 
pentance unto  salvation  not  to  be  repented  of.  ({) 

The  same  also  further  appears  in  the  course  taken 
by  the  surviving  Israelites  ;  for  seeing  that  many  of 
their  nation  had  died  under  the  bite  of  the  serpents, 

(e)  Matt.  xxvi.  36— 46.  Luke  xxii.  39— 47.  John  xix.  30— 37. 
Rom.  iii.  25,  26.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  (/)  Hosea  vi.  4.  (g)  1  Cor.  x.  9. 
2  Cor.  vii.  10.  (h)  Rom.  vii.  9.  Gal.  ii.  19—21.  (t)  2  Cor.  vii.  10. 


86 

and  sensible,  that,  as  to  any  thing  they  could  do  to 
prevent  it,  they  must  share  the  same  fate,  "the  peo- 
ple came  to  Moses,"  their  national  mediator  with  God, 
"and  said,  We  have  sinned;  for  we  have  spoken 
against  the  Lord  and  against  thee;  pray  unto  the 
Lord  that  he  take  away  the  serpents  from  us."  So 
all  truly  sensible  sinners,  informed  that  Christ  is  the 
only  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  go  to  him  with 
similar  language :  Lord  Jesus,  say  they,  we  have  sin- 
ned against  the  Father,  by  transgressing  his  righte- 
ous law,  and  against  thee,  by  hitherto  trusting  in  our- 
selves, to  the  contempt  of  thy  precious  blood  and 
perfect  righteousness ;  yet  now,  even  now,  intercede 
for  us  on  the  ground  of  what  thou  hast  done  and  suf- 
fered for  guilty,  helpless  sinners,  such  as  we.  "Lord 
save  we  perish  1" 

Nor  is  the  type  any  less  appropriate,  in  regard  to 
the  remedy  prescribed.  "  The  Lord  said  unto  Moses, 
Make  thee  a  fiery  serpent  and  set  it  on  a  pole,"  a  ban- 
ner or  ensign,  as  the  word  signifies ;  or  on  a  high 
place,  as  it  is  rendered  in  the  Targum  of  Jonathan. 
"  Moses,"  obedient  to  the  divine  order,  "  made  a  ser- 
pent of  brass,"  a  suitable  material  for  the  purpose  ;  for 
being  burnished  and  elevated,  when  shone  upon  by  the 
sun  and  moved  by  the  wind,  it  acquired  a  great  likeness 
to  the  fiery  flying  serpents ;  at  least,  reminded  the 
Israelites  of  them — and  might  be  seen  from  all  parts 
of  the  camp.  That,  in  furnishing  this  remedy  for 
Israel,  Moses  was  a  type  of  Christ,  who  for  the  sake 
of  his  people  "  sanctified,"  prepared  or  denoted  him- 
self, (&)  that  he  might  be  an  effectual  remedy  against 
the  deadly  curse  due  to  them  for  their  sins,  admits  of 
no  doubt ;  Christ  himself  having  made  the  application : 
"As  Moses,"  saith  he,  "lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
(k)  John  xvii.  19.  Eph.  v.  2. 


87 

wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up," 
upon  the  cross,  and  in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel ; 
"that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  eternal  life."  (7) 

Moses,  in  preparing  this  remedy,  typified  Christ, 

1.  In  his  assumption  of  human  nature :  for,  as  the 
brazen  figure  which  Moses  made,  had  the  form,  with- 
out the  poison  of  a  serpent ;  so  Christ,  though  made 
in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  was  without  sin.  (m) 

2.  In  his  vicarious  sufferings:  for,  as  the  brazen 
serpent,  on  the  pole,  was  exposed  to  the  scorching 
beams  of  the  sun  and  to  all  the  effects  of  beating 
storms  and  tempests,  as  the  means  of  saving  the  Is- 
raelites from  temporal  death;  so  Christ,  on  the  tree 
of  the  cross,  was  exposed  to  the  fiery  curse  of  God's 
righteous  law  and  to  the  beating  storms  and  tempests 
of  Satan's  last  and  most  rageful  assaults,  to  save  his 
guilty  people  from  death  eternal,  (n)     Nor  was  the 
form  of  a  serpent  chosen  for  this  purpose,  without  de- 
sign :  for,  being  an  emblem  of  the  curse,  it  most  fitly 
typified  him,  who  (strange  to  tell)  was  made  "  a  curse 
for  us."  (o)     And, 

3.  In  the  exhibition  of  him  in  the  gospel.     Was  the 
serpent  to  be  exhibited  in  the  wilderness  ?    In  the  wil- 
derness of  this  world,  Christ  was  crucified  and  is  to  be 
preached.     Was  the  serpent  exhibited  in  the  most 
public  manner ;  it  being  raised  on  a  pole  and  that  on 
an  eminence,  where  all  that  had  eye-sight  might  be- 
hold itl  So  Christ  is  to  be  preached  in  the  most  pub- 
lic and  explicit  manner  possible,  that  all  who  have 
spiritual  eye- sight,  however  weak  or  small,  may  see 
that  he  and  he  only  is  "the  end  of  the  law  for  right- 

(0  John  iii.  14,  15.  xii.  32,  33.     (m)  Rom.  viii.  3.     Heb.  iv.  15. 
(n)  Matt,  xxvii.  39—44.  1  Pet.  ii.  24.  iii.  18.  (o)  Gal.  iii.  13. 


88 

eousness  to  every  one  that  believeth."  (o)  Did  the  ser- 
pent appear  the  more  briliant  and  manifest  by  means 
of  the  sun  and  wind  1  So  Christ  becomes  the  more  con- 
spicuous and  attractive,  when  exhibited  in  the  light  of 
the  gospel,  and  presented  to  the  understanding  of  sin- 
ners by  the  ruach,  the  wind  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
is  "  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  know- 
ledge of  him."  (p)  Looking  to  the  serpent,  implied 
a  sense  of  danger  and  faith  in  the  remedy ;  so  does 
looking  to  Christ,  (q)  Did  every  bitten  Israelite,  on 
looking  at  the  serpent  live,  that  is,  receive  health  and 
comfort  1  So  every  sinner,  stung  by  the  guilt  of  hav- 
ing transgressed  the  law  and  conscious  of  deserving 
its  dreadful  penalty,  on  looking  to  Christ  by  faith,  re- 
ceives spiritual  health  and  unutterable  consolation, 
(r)  Did  the  remedy  thus  prepared  and  exhibited 
seem  to  invite  the  bitten  Israelites  to  look  to  it  for  a 
cure  1  So  Christ  is  constantly  saying  to  all  capable 
of  seeing  (and  which  is  true  only  of  the  regenerate) 
"  Look  unto  me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth" — an  invitation  applicable  to  sensible  sinners 
of  all  nations,  wherever  the  Bible  is  sent  or  the  gos- 
pel preached,  (s)  And  as  there  is  no  evidence  in  the 
history,  that  any  of  those  who  confessed  their  sins 
and  for  whom  the  remedy  was  exhibited,  failed  of 
looking  to  it  and  living  by  it ;  so  there  is  no  instance 
upon  sacred  record  of  one,  even  one,  in  whom  the 
good  work  of  regeneration  was  wrought,  who  was 
not  also  enabled,  by  faith,  to  look  to  Christ,  or  who, 
looking  to  him,  perished.  (£) 

But  while  such  is  the  general  use  proper  to  be  made 

(o)  Mark  xvi.  15,  16.  Rom.  x.  4.  (p)  2  Tim.  i.  10.  Eph.  i.  17. 
comp.  1  Kings  xix.  11.  John  iii.  8.  (q)  Matt.  viii.  2.  Mark  v.  25 — 
28.  John  vi.  45.  (r)  Jer.  xxxiii.  6.  1  Pet.  1.8.  (s)  Is.  xlv.  22.  Matt, 
xi.  28.  (t)  Zech.  xii.  10.  John  vi.  40.  1  Pet.  ii.  7. 


89 

f 

of  this  type  in  public  preaching,  it  has,  nevertheless,  a 
primary  and  most  pertinent  and  important  application 
to  the  visible  church  in  gospel  times,  of  which  national 
Israel  was  an  illustrious  type,  (u) 

To  the  murmurings  of  national  Israel,  as  noticed  at 
the  commencement  of  this  article,  the  murmurings  of 
New-Testament  professors,those  of  true  believers  not 
excepted,  lamentably  correspond. 

To  the  bite  of  the  judicial  serpents,  answer  those 
legal  convictions  and  terrors,  as  also  all  other  distress- 
ing visitations  which  God  brings,  or  suffers  to  come, 
upon  his  professing  people,to  awaken  them  to  a  sense 
of  their  evil  ways,  and  that  they  may  feel  more  deeply 
their  dependence  upon  his  favor  in  Providence,  and, 
especially,  upon  his  pardoning  and  sanctifying  grace 
in  Christ  Jesus,  (w) 

And  as  "  much  people  of  Israel  died"  under  the 
judgment  of  the  serpents,  there  is  great  reason  to  be- 
lieve, that  many  of  God's  own  children,  though  par- 
doned and  saved  through  Christ,  are,  nevertheless,  for 
their  unworthy  conduct — their  worldly  mindedness — 
their  ungrateful  murmurings — and,  especially  for  their 
distrust  of  Christ  and  their  neglect  or  abuse  of  his  or- 
dinances, taken  away,  by  temporal  death,  as  a  token 
of  God's  displeasure  and  as  a  warning  to  others.  In 
this  way,  even  Moses  and  Aaron,  those  eminent  min- 
isters of  God,  were  removed,  (x)  And  for  such  rea- 
sons, many  of  the  Church  at  Corinth,  were  "weak 
and  sickly"  in  their  bodies  as  well  as  their  souls,  and 
many  slept,  not  only  as  sleep  denotes  spiritual  lethar- 
gy, but  also  as  it  denotes  corporal  death,  (y) 

(u)  1  Pet.  ii.  9.  (w)  Psal.  Ixxxviii.  14—16.  1  Pet.  iv.  17—18. 
Rev.  iii.  14—20.  (x)  Numb.  xx.  12,  23—29,  and  xxvii.  12—14. 
(y)  1  Cor.  xi.  30—32.  John  xi.  11—13. 

12 


90 

In  the  awakening  which  took  place  among  the  sur- 
viving Israelites,  we  have  a  striking  illustration  of  what 
commonly  follows  in  the  church,  or  in  any  branch  of 
it,  when  God,  in  that  judicial  manner,  calls  some 
professors  away.  "  When  his  judgments  are  abroad 
in  the  earth,  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  will  learn 
righteousness ;"  and  by  whom  are  meant  his  own 
people,  who,  though  not  of  the  world,  yet  inhabit  it ; 
and  from  whom,  in  the  next  two  verses,  the  wicked 
are  distinguished,  (z) 

As  the  Israelites  considered  and  confessed  their 
sins  against  the  Lord  and  against  Moses  ;  so  the 
saints,  thus  awakened,  reflect  upon  and  confess  their 
sins,  both  against  the  Father  and  the  Son — the  law 
and  the  gospel ;  and  remembering  from  whence  they 
are  fallen,  "  They  repent  arid  do  their  first  works."  (a) 

And  as,  thereupon,  the  divinely  appointed  remedy 
was  exhibited  under  a  new  type,  and  the  penitent 
Israelites  reprieved  and  pardoned  ;  so,  to  awakened 
and  penitent  saints,  the  same  remedy,  Christ  crucifi- 
ed, is  anew  revealed,  and,  for  his  sake,  they  are  par- 
doned and  spared  for  further  comfort  and  usefulness 
in  the  church  upon  earth :  "  If  we  confess  our  sins, 
God  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness.  (#)* 

(z)  Is.  xxvi.  9—11.  2  Cor.  vii.  11.  (a)  Rev.  ii.  5.  (6)  1  John 
i.  9.  Comp.  Eph.  iv.  30—32,  and  v.  14. 

*  In  taking  leave  of  this  article,  let  us  learn  something  even  from 
the  subsequent  conduct  of  the  Israelites  in  regard  to  the  brazen 
serpent.  That  they  took  it  with  them,  was  commendable ;  God 
having  rendered  it  so  eminently  useful  to  them ;  but,  instead  of 
preserving  it  merely  as  a  memorial,  "  the  children  of  Israel  did 
burn  incense  to  it."  Thus  their  posterity  have  not  merely  pre- 
served the  letter  of  the  ceremonial  law  with  a  commendable  care, 
but,  alas,  have  pertinaciously  continued  in  the  observance  of  its 


91 

Of  the  law  delivered  through  Moses  to  Israel,  we 
take  no  notice  here,  as  it  will  be  considered  in  fu- 
ture discourses. 

In  connexion  with  the  delivery  of  it,  however,  we 

rites ;  and  which,  (the  antitype  being  come  and  that  law  being 
abolished,)  is  in  God's  account  no  better  than  idolatry  and  abomi- 
nation. Is.  Ixvi.  3.  Philip,  iii.  3 — 10.  Thus  also  the  papists, 
instead  of  consistently  embracing  the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  super- 
stitiously  idolize  the  supposed  splinters  of  it;  and  instead  of  re- 
garding the  host  as  an  emblem  of  Christ  crucified,  worship  it  as  if 
it  were  Christ  himself.  But  as  Hezekiah  called  the  idolized 
serpent  Nehushtan,  apiece  of  brass,  and  nothing  else ;  Paul  called 
the  ceremonial  law  "  a  shadow ^of  good  things  to  come,"  and 
nothing  else;  (2  Kings  xviii.  4.  Col.  ii.  17.  Heb.  x.  1.)  and, 
in  like  manner,  we  affirm  of  the  splinters  and  of  the  host  idolized 
by  the  papists — They  are,  the  former  wood,  and  the  latter  a  wafer •, 
and  nothing  else ;  yea,  rejecting  both  transubstantiation  and  con- 
substantiation,  we  hesitate  not  to  say  even  of  the  elements  divinely 
appointed  to  be  received  by  communicants  at  the  Lord's  table — 
They  are,  in  their  nature,  nothing  but  bread  and  wine,  and,  in 
their  use,  nothing  but  commemorative  symbols  of  the  sacred  body 
and  precious  blood  of  our  blessed  REDEEMER.  Matt.  xxvi.  26 — 29. 
1  Cor.  xi.  23—26. 

Ner  can  the  words  used  by  our  Lord  when  instituting  the  Sup- 
per, bear  any  but  a  similar  interpretation.  To  understand  him  as 
literally  saying,  This  (the  broken  bread)  is  my  body,  when  his 
body  was  not  yet  broken ;  and  This  (the  wine  in  the  cup)  is  my 
blood — which  is  shed  for  many,  while  it  was  not  yet  shed,  but  was 
flowing  in  his  veins,  is  to  understand  him  (shocking  to  mention) 
as  asserting  manifest  untruths.  But,  understood  as  spoken  figu- 
ratively and  by  anticipation,  his  affirmations  were  just  and  his 
meaning  was  obvious ;  the  broken  bread  was  a  fit  emblem  of  his 
body  broken,  and  the  wine  a  fit  emblem  of  his  blood  shed,  as  they 
were  shortly  to  be.  Compare  Ezek.  v.  5 ;  where  God  says  of  the 
prophet's  shaven  head,  or  rather  of  a  lock  of  his  hair,  This  is 
Jerusalem  ;  and  Luke  xxii.  20  ;  where  Christ  says  of  a  vessel,  then 
in  his  hand,  This  cup  is  the  new  testament;  also  Gal.  iv.  24 ;  where 
Paul  says  of  Hagar  and  Sarah,  These  are  the  two  covenants.  Who 
ever  understood  these  assertions  literally  1 

While  on  this  subject,  let  it  be  further  observed,  how  our  Lord, 


92 

find  a  part  of  Israel's  history,  that  must  not  escape 
present  remark — I  mean  their  lamentable  fall  into  the 
idolatry  of  making  and  worshiping  a  calf.     Herein 
they  manifested  the  basest  ingratitude  to  God  and  the 
highest  rebelion  against  him ;  who  had  said  to  them, 
lam  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  have  brought  thee  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage : 
Thou  shalt  have  no  other  Gods  before  me.  (jf)  And 
the  conduct  of  Aaron,  in  particular,  in  regard  to  this 
affair,  was  such  as  abundantly  demonstrated  both  his 
own  imperfection  and  that  of  his  priesthood ;  also  that 
whereas  the  law,  the  ceremonial  law,  made  men  high 
priests  which  had  infirmity,  sinful  infirmity,  there  was 
a  necessity  for  the  true  High  Priest,  "  who  is  holy, 
harmless  and  undefiled,"  and  "who  needethnot  daily, 
as  those  high  priests,  to  offer  up  sacrifice,  first  for  his 
own  sins,  and  then  for  the  people's."  (g)     Here,  to 
express  God's  indignation  at  idolatry,  as  in  the  pre- 
ceding case,  to  mark  his  displeasure  at  murmuring, 
many  were  judicially  cut  off;  and  in  both  instances, 
as  a  warning  to  survivors  ;  yet  upon  the  intercession 
of  Moses,  who,  in  their  behalf,  plead  their  peculiar 
relation  to  God — how  much  the  honor  of  his  name 
was  concerned  in  their  preservation,  and  especially 
his  promise  and  oath  to  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
that  he  would  bring  their  posterity  into  the  land  of 
Canaan  ;  nay,  tendered  his  own  life  for  theirs — upon 
his  thus  interceding  for  them,  I  say,  the  wrath  was 
stayed  and  the  residue  of  the  nation  spared.  (A)  How 

under  a  fore-sight  of  the  popish  practice  of  withholding  the  euchar- 
istic  wine  from  the  people,  solemnly  enjoined  the  contrary  :  Pre- 
senting the  bread,  he  simply  said,  Take  eat ;  but,  presenting  the 
wine,  he  was  more  explicit,  saying,  Drink  ye  ALL  of  it.  Matt. 
xxvi.  26,  27. 

(/)  Exo.  xx.  2.    (g)  Heb.  vii.  27,  28.     (A)  Exo.  xxxu. 


93 

much,  alas,  does  Idolatry  prevail  among  spiritual  Is- 
raelites !  And  if  God  had  not  respect  to  his  own  cove- 
nant and  to  our  relation  to  him  in  it;  and  especial- 
ly, if  we  had  not  "an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus 
Christ  the  righteous,"  what  must  be  our  fate  1  "  If 
thou,  LORD,  shouldest  mark  iniquities,  O  LORD,  who 
shall  stand  I  But  there  is  forgiveness  with  thee,  that 
thou  mayestbe  feared."  (i) 

But  Moses  was  also  a  type  of  Christ  in  the  erection 
of  the  tabernacle.  This,  which  of  itself  might  fur- 
nish matter  amply  sufficient  for  a  sermon,  we  must 
necessarily  treat  with  great  brevity ;  other  subjects, 
less  understood,having  already  enlarged  this  discourse 
to  nearly  double  the  length  of  our  prescribed  limits, 

That  the  tabernacle,  as  well  as  the  temple,  besides 
typifying  Christ  in  his  human  nature,  was  a  figure  of 
the  church,  both  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  is  so  plainly 
revealed  and  so  generally  admitted,  as  to  need  no 
proof.  Nor  is  the  analogy  here  between  Christ  and 
Moses,  either  doubtful  or  obscure.  See  Ser.  I.  p.  35,36. 

As  Moses  received  the  pattern  of  the  tabernacle  and 
of  all  things  relating  to  it,  from  God  in  the  mount,  and 
made  it  known  on  his  descent ;  so  Christ  having  re- 
ceived the  model  of  the  church  in  the  mount  and 
council  of  heaven,  in  person  and  by  his  Spirit  in  the 
prophets  and  apostles,  has  revealed  it  upon  earth,  (fc) 

As  all  the  persons  chosen  of  God  either  to  build 
the  tabernacle  or  to  officiate  in  it,  were  placed  under 
the  direction  of  Moses ;  so  all  gospel  ministers  and 
all  private  Christians  are  to  perform  their  various  ser- 
vice under  the  direction  of  Christ,  who  is  Lord  of 
all.  (I) 

(i)  Is.  liv.7— 10.  1  John  ii.  1.  Psal.  cxxx.  3,  4.  (k)  Dan. 
ii.  44.  John  xviii.  36.  Is.  Ixii.  12.  Matt.  v.  14.  Gal.  vi.  10. 
(0  Acts  x.  36.  Eph.i.32,23. 


94 

Again ;  as  Moses  was  faithful  in  executing  all  his 
charge,  so  is  Christ,  (n)  Hence,  as  in  regard  to  the 
tabernacle,  "  Moses  finished  the  work,"  so  will  Christ 
in  regard  to  the  church.  What  was  said  of  Zerubba- 
bel  concerning  the  material  temple,  may  well  be  said 
of  Christ  concerning  the  spiritual  temple  ;  for  having, 
by  his  obedience  and  sacrifice,  "laid  the  foundation  of 
this  house"  in  a  complete  satisfaction  to  divine  justice, 
"his  hands  shall  also  finish  it,"  in  sanctification  and 
glorification,  (o)  The  chosen  materials,  though  dead 
and  rough  in  the  quarry  of  nature,  are,  by  his  grace, 
all  raised  and  polished  and  so  made  "  lively  stones," 
fit  for  the  spiritual  building ;  ( p)  and  thus,  although 
earth  and  hell  oppose,  "he  shall  bring  forth  the  head- 
stone," the  last  of  God's  elect,  "with  shoutings,  crying 
Grace,  grace  unto  it."  (q)  And,  as  Moses  had  much 
honor  from  his  work,  Christ  shall  have  much  more 
from  his ;  (r)  He,  "  even  he  shall  build"  this  "  temple 
of  the  Lord  and  he  shall  bear  the  glory;"  and  "when 
Christ  who  is  our  life  shall  appear,  we  also  shall  appear 
with  him  in  glory,"  and  that  in  the  view  of  the  whole 
intelligent  universe ;  for  "  he  shall  come  to  be  glorifi- 
ed in  his  saints  and  to  be  admired  in  all  them  that 
believe,  (s) 

HITHERTO  we  have  considered  Moses  as  a  type  of 
Christ  only  in  the  history  of  his  usefulness  to  Israel, 
give  nunder  the  first  head  of  the  former  discourse ;  but, 
in  conclusion,  we  must  in  the  same  way  briefly  notice 
the  interesting  manner  in  which  he  took  his  final  leave 
of  them,  namely,  by  pronouncing  upon  them,  the 
blessing  intended  in  the  text ;  it  being  "  the  blessing 
wherewith  Moses,  the  man  of  God,  blessed  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  before,"  just  before  "his  death." 

(n)  Numb.  xii.  7.  Heb.  iii.  1—3.  (o)  Zech.  iv.  9.  Eph.  v 
25—27.  (p)  Is.  li.  1.  1  Pet.  ii.  5.  (?)  Zech.  iv.  7.  (r )  Heb.  iii. 
3.  (s)  Zech.  vi.  13.  Col.  iii.  4.  2  Thess.  i.  10. 


95 

Did  Moses  pronounce  this  blessing  upon  Israel  in  a 
way  of  prayer  1  Let  us  remember  the  mediatory 
prayer  of  Christ  for  his  disciples  then  living,  and  for 
all  who  should  believe  on  him  through  their  word,  (i) 

Did  Moses  pronounce  this  blessing  upon  Israel  as  a 
prophet  1  We  have  his  own  testimony,  that,  as  such, 
he  was  but  a  type  of  Christ:  "The  Lord  thy  God," 
said  he  to  Israel,  "  will  raise  up  unto  thee  a  prophet 
from  the  midst  of  thee,  of  thy  brethren,  like  unto  me ; 
unto  him  ye  shall  hearken :"  (u)  and  that  this  Prophet 
is  Christ,  was  revealed  both  to  Peter  and  to  Stephen. 
(w)  As  Moses,  in  pronouncing  this  blessing,  foretold 
the  various  conditions  of  the  chosen  tribes,  through- 
out the  Jewish  dispensation ;  so  Christ  in  his  own 
personal  ministry,  and  by  his  Spirit  in  the  prophets 
and  apostles,  foretold  the  successive  changes  of  the 
Church,  hoth  prosperous  and  adverse,  to  the  end  of 
the  world.  Of  this,  any  one  must  be  convinced  who 
reads  and  believes  the  scriptures ;  and,  especially,  the 
predictions  of  Isaiah  and  Daniel ;  the  twenty-fourth 
and  twenty-fifth  chapters  of  Matthew  ;  the  Epistles 
of  Paul  to  the  Thessalonians,  and  the  Revelations 
made  to  John  the  divine. 

Did  Moses  pronounce  this  blessing  in  the  character 
and  with  the  affection  of  a  pastor  ?  Let  us  think  of 
him  who  is  the  true  pastor  of  the  Church — "  the  great, 
the  chief  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls."  (x) 

Was  Moses  also  King  in  Jeshurun,  when  he  pro- 
nounced this  blessing  ?  Let  Christians  never  forget, 
that  he  who  is  their  Intercessor  and  Teacher,  is  also 
their  King  ;  and  that,  as  God  enjoined  upon  national 

(t)  John  xvii.  20.  (u)  Deut.  xviii.  15.  (w)  Acts  iii.  22.  vii.  37. 
(z)  1  Pet.  ii.  25,  v.  4. 


96 

Israel,  obedience  to  Moses,  so,  and  much  more,  he 
enjoins  upon  spiritual  Israel,  obedience  to  CHRIST; 
saying,  " This  is  my  beloved  Son,  hear  him"  that 
is,  hearken  to  his  instructions  and  obey  his  precepts. 

Finally;  As  Moses  in  pronouncing  this  blessing, 
confirmed  to  Israel  what  Jacob,  by  the  same  Spirit  of 
prayer  and  prophecy,  had  uttered  concerning  them, 
long  before ;  so  all  the  glorious  things,  which,  by  in- 
spiration, had  been  spoken  of  Zion  from  the  begin- 
ning, were  renewed  and  confirmed  to  her,  in  the  pro- 
mises, predictions  and  prayers  of  Christ,  arid  espe- 
cially when,like  Jacob  and  like  .Moses,  he  was  about  to 
depart  by  death.  The  truth  of  this  remark  will  force 
itself  upon  every  one  who  carefully  reads  the  four- 
teenth and  the  three  following  chapters  of  the  Gospel 
by  John. 

Here  the  parallel  ceases.  Moses  could  do  no  more ; 
but  Christ  could  and  did :  he  blessed  his  people  in 
his  death ;  he  "  was  delivered  for  our  offenses  ;"  and 
in  his  resurrection ;  he  "  was  raised  again  for  our  jus- 
tification." Nay,  blessing  them,  "  he  was  parted  from 
them,  and  carried  up  into  heaven."  where,  as  a  con- 
tinual blessing,  "  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession 
for  them."  His  resurrection,  too,was  a  certain  pledge 
of  the  resurrection  of  all  that  fall  asleep  in  him.  In 
this  respect  he  is  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept. 
Moreover,  his  resurrection  was  the  pattern  of  ours  ; 
he  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  it  may  be  fashion- 
ed like  unto  his  glorious  body.  Nor  is  this  all ;  for 
having  transformed  his  redeemed  in  soul  and  body 
into  his  own  likeness,  he  will  introduce  them  into  the 
kingdom  that  was  prepared  for  them  from  thefoun- 
dation'  of  the  world,  and  will  there  be  the  medium 
both  of  their  glory  and  of  their  blessedness  to  all 

ETERNITY. 


SERMON  in. 

THE  DELIVERY  AXD  AUTHORITY  OF 
THE  L.AW. 


DEUT.  xxxni. — 2.     And  he  said.   The  Lord  came  from  Sinai,  • 
and  rose  up  from   Seir  unto   them ;  he  shined  forth  from  mount 
Parany  and  he  came  with  ten  thousands  of  saints :  from  his  rig  Jit 
hand  went  a  fiery  law  for  them. 


HERE  begins  the  subject  of  the  chapter,  the  title 
of  which  we  had  in  the  preceding  verse.  The  sub- 
ject consists  of  two  parts :  a  solemn  recognition  of 
what  the  Lord  had  done  for  Israel,  and  a  prophetic 
enunciation  of  blessings,  special  and  general,  which 
he  designed  thereafter  to  confer  upon  them  ;  the  for- 
mer extending  to  the  end  of  the  fifth  verse,  and  the 
latter  from  thence  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

In  the  text,  Moses  recognizes  the  Majesty  of  the 
Lawgiver,  and  asserts  three  things  concerning  the 
law. 

I.  He  recognizes  the  Majesty  of  the  Lawgiver. 
I  say  he  recognizes  it,  because  in  this  place  he  mere- 
ly acknowledges  or  declares  what  he  had  seen  and 
heard  of  that  Majesty  on  Sinai's  awful  summit,  near 
forty  years  before.  It  was  the  Majesty  of  JEHOVAH 
himself:  The  LORD  came  from  Sinai ;  not  by  loco- 
motion, or  change  of  place,  for  he  is  omnipresent ; 
but  by  a  visible  manifestation  of  his  presence.  This 
was, 

15 


98  THE    DELIVERY    AND  [SER.  III. 

1.  Very  dreadful.  "It  came  to  pass  on  the  third 
day  in  the  morning,"  (as  the  Lord  had  said  to  Mo- 
ses,) "that  there  were  thunders  and  lightnings,  and 
a  thick  cloud  upon  the  mount,  and  the  voice  of  the 
trumpet  exceding  loud  ;  so  that  all  the  people  that 
was  in  the  camp  trembled.  And  mount  Sinai  was 
altogether  on  a  smoke,  because  the  LORD  descend- 
ed upon  it  in  fire ;  and  the  smoke  thereof  ascend- 
ed as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace,  and  the  whole  mount 
>  quaked  greatly."  a 

By  allusion  to  this,  the  psalmist  in  celebrating  the 
Majesty  of  God,  says    "He  looketh  on  the  earth 
and   it  trembleth ;  he  toucheth  the  hills  and   they 
smoke." b     Then  it  was,    that,  as   related   in  the 
text,   The  Lord  came  from  Sinai,  that  is,  manifest- 
ed himself  from  thence  to  Israel :  for  "  Moses  brought 
forth  the  people  out  of  the  camp  to  meet  with  God, 
and  they  stood  at  the  nether  part  of  the  mount.  And 
the  LORD  came  down  upon  mount  Sinai,  on  the  top 
of  the  mount,"  and  that  "  in  the  sight  of  all  the  peo- 
ple."     How  awful  the  sight !     One  should  think  the 
Israelites  could  never  have  lost  the  impression  which 
it  must  have   made  upon  them  ;  and  that  it  would 
for  ever  have  blasted  their  unbelief — suppressed  their 
murmurings — and  eradicated  every  vestage  of  their 
inclination  after  other  gods.     Nay — if,  for  a  moment, 
we  could  forget  the  deep  depravity  of  human  nature, 
and  the  strength  of  Satan's  instigations,  we  should 
suppose  that  even  the  inspired  record  of  that  tre- 
mendous scene,  wherever  granted,  would  have  con- 
founded arid  silenced  atheists  and  deists,  and  "  gain- 
sayers"  of  every  description,  to  the  end  of  time. 

a  Exo.  xix.  9,  16,  18.     b  Psal.  civ.  32.     c  xix.  17,  20.  comp. 
v.  11. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF    THE    LAW.  99 

And  this,  indeed,  is  the  very  reason  which  God 
himself  assigned  for  thus  manifesting  his  Majesty  to 
Israel :  "  The  LORD  said  unto  Moses,  Lo,  I  come 
unto  thee  in  a  thick  cloud,  that  the  people  may  hear 
when  I  speak  with  thee,  and  believe  thee  for  ever.d 
This  thick  cloud  might  be  designed  as  an  emblem 
both  of  the  legal  dispensation,  which  is  dark  and 
threatening,  and  of  that  awful  obscurity  which  con- 
ceals the  divine  essence  from  human  ken,  and  for- 
bids our  curious  pryings  into  what,  of  himself  or 
his  decrees,  God  has  not  seen  fit  to  reveal.  "  No 
man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time."  "  Secret  things 
belong  unto  the  LORD  our  God  ;  but  those  things 
which  are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and  to  our  chil- 
dren &c."e  In  himself,  God  is  light  ;f  yet,  with  refer- 
ence to  men,  "he  holdeth  back  the  face  of  his 
throne,  and  spreadeth  his  cloud  upon  it ;"  and  "  giv- 
eth  not  account  of  any  of  his  matters."*  He  came 
down  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people  of  Israel ;  he 
caused  them  to  see  and  hear  what  convinced  them, 
that  of  a  truth  his  dread  Majesty  was  there  :  "  The 
LORD  spake"  to  them  "  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  ;1) 
they  "  heard  the  voice  of  the  words,  but  saw  no  si- 
militude."11 "  He  made  darkness  his  secret  place  ; 
his  pavilion  round  about  him  was  dark  waters,  aad 
thick  clouds." ' 

Chiefly,  however,  this  vision  was  designed  to  estab- 
lish the  oracular  authority  of  Moses  ;  which,  though 
abundantly  evinced  in  Egypt  and  at  the  Red  sea, 
might  need  this  farther  confirmation  to  repress  that 
unbelief  which  was  the  besetting  sin  of  Israel.  In 

d  Ibid.  Ver.  9.  e  John  i.  18  and  Deut.  xxix.  29.  »  1  John  i.  o. 
*  Job.  xxvi.  9.  and  xxxiii.  13.  h  Deut.  iv.  12.  'Psal.  xviii.  11. 


100  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  HI. 

their  audience,  therefore,  and  before  their  eyes,  such 
an  intercommunity  occurred  between  God  and  Mo- 
ses, as  bid  defiance  to  unbelief  itself.  "When  the 
voice  of  the  trumpet  sounded  long,  and  waxed  loud- 
er and  louder,  Moses  spake  ;"  and  though  what  he 
then  said,  was  not  recorded  by  him,  it  was  revealed 
to  an  apostle — is  preserved  in  the  New  Testament — 
and  well  agrees  with  the  circumstances  of  the  case. 
The  people  had  already  trembled  at  the  ordinary 
sound  of  the  trumpet ;  ver.  16.  but  this  waxing  loud- 
er and  louder,  became  at  length,  together  with  the 
vision,  so  terrible,  that  Moses  himself  said,  "  I  ex- 
cedingly  fear  and  quake." k  "And  God  answered 
him  by  a  voice" — not  "  a  small  still  voice,"  as 
most  commentators  have  supposed,  but  by  a  very 
sonorous  and  articulate  one — a  voice  that  might  be 
heard  and  understood  by  all  the  people  ;  it  being  not 
only  audible,  but  also  intelligible — "the  voice  of 
words."1  None  but  such  a  voice  could  have  com- 
ported with  the  promise  and  design  of  the  vision  and 
communication ;  the  LORD  having  said  unto  Moses, 
Loj  I  come  unto  thee  in  a  thick  cloud,  that  the  people 
may  hear  when  I  speak  with  thee,  and  believe  thee 
for  ever.  Thus  addressing  him,  "  the  LORD,"  in  the 
hearing  of  all  Israel,  "  called  Moses  up  to  the  top  of 
the  mount,"  which  neither  man  nor  beast  might 
touch  on  pain  of  death  ;  "  and  Moses,"  in  full  view  of 
the  people,  "  went  up,"  which,  without  such  an  ex- 
plicit call,  neither  he,  nor  any  other  man  could  have 
presumed  to  do.  m  And  having  had  these  sensible 
and  indubitable  demonstrations  of  his  intercourse 
with  God,  well  might  his  nation  thencefonvard  regard 

k  Heb.  xii.  21.      'Ibid.  ver.  19.     m  Exo.  xix.  19,  20. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY    OF    THE    LAW.  101 

him  as  God's  living  oracle  to  them,  and  believe  him 
and  his  writings  for  ever.* 

To  believers,  it  is  highly  grateful  and  confirmato- 
ry, to  find  the  oracular  authority  of  Moses,  and  con- 
sequently of  his  writings,  thus  indubitably  established 

*  The  designation  too  of  the  seventy  elders,  who  acted  in  subordi- 
nation to  Moses,  was  established  in  a  similar,  though  less  magnifi- 
cent manner:  "  The  LORD,"  agreeable  to  his  antecedent  promise  to 
Moses,  "  came  down  in  a  cloud,  and  spake  unto  him,  and  took  of 
the  Spirit  that  was  upon  him,"  that  is,  a  measure  of  the  same  Spi- 
rit which  more  abundantly  rested  upon  Moses,  and  gave  it  unto  the 
seventy  elders ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  the  Spirit  rested  up- 
on them,  they  prophesied,"  that  is,  they  immediately  possessed  and 
manifested  such  wisdom  and  eloquence  as  altogether  transcended 
their  natural  capacities ;  and  which  was  intended  as  a  sign  to  the  na- 
tion, that  they  were  chosen  and  qualified  of  God  to  act  as  coadjutors 
to  Moses  in  matters  of  government.  It  is  added,  "  and  did  not 
cease,"  that  is,  from  prophesying.  Herein,  however,  our  translation 
follows  the  Chaldee  paraphrase,  (ppD2  ^Sl)  and  not  the  original ;  for 
the  Hebrew  (iSD11  N1?)  literally  signifies,  they  did  not  add  ;  and  which 
is  favored  by  the  LXX.  who  render  it,  «»  OVK  en  arpooceevTo  and  they  did 
not  add  any  more.  Hence  this  clause  has  generally  been  interpret- 
ed to  mean,  that  they  prophesied  that  day  and  never  afterward. 
But  as  the  gift  of  wisdom,  to  answer  its  design;  must  have  re- 
mained in  them  to  qualify  them  for  their  official  work ;  it  is  high- 
ly probable  that  the  gift  of  prophecy,  in  its  kind,  remained  in  them 
also,  for  the  purpose  of  re-confirming  the  authority  by  which  they 
acted,  whenever  that  authority  was  called  in  question.  Wherefore, 
I  understand  the  clause  they  did  not  add,  to  mean,  either,  that 
they  did  not  affect  or  exaggerate  ;  but  that,  in  singing,  speaking  or 
acting,  however  much  they  were  transported  above  themselves,  they 
never  exceded,  as  the  word  also  signifies,  (2  Chron.  ix.  6.)  the 
impulse  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  them  ;  or,  that  their  prophesying, 
aside  from  the  record  of  the  fact  itself,  added  nothing  to  the  pro- 
phetic writings ;  it  being  designed  merely  to  show  that  their  call  to 
the  station  they  were  to  fill,  was  of  God,  and  not  a  pretence  of 
their  own,  to  secure  aggrandizement,  nor  a  device  of  Moses,  to 
lessen  his  own  labor.  And,  accordingly,  what  they  uttered,  was  not 
added  to  the  inspired  volume.  See  Numb.  xi.  16,  17,  25. 


102  THE   DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

by  the  intercourse  which  God  held  with  him  at  Sinai. 
How  much  more,  then,  should  our  faith  and  hope 
be  confirmed  in  the  gospel,  and  therefore  in  Christ 
as  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS,  while  we  consider 
the  intercourse  which  he  enjoyed  with  heaven,  and 
the  testimony  thence  given  of  him,  at  his  baptism 
and  at  his  transfiguration.  Rising  from  the  waters 
of  Jordan,  in  which  he  was  baptized,  he  received 
the  most  illustrious  demonstrations  of  heavenly  ap- 
probation, in  his  thus  ratifying  this  ordinance  for 
the  observance  of  believers  in  all  subsequent  gene- 
rations, and  of  the  concurrence  of  the  Father  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  with  him,  in  all  the  objects  of  his 
Mission,  as  the  Messiah ;  yea  more — the  highest 
possible  attestation  to  his  divine  Sonship,  and  conse- 
quently to  his  proper  divinity : — In  the  sight,  not  only 
of  John,  the  administrator,*  but  also  of  the  thousands 
then  and  there  assembled,f  the  Spirit,  like  a  dove, 
descended  upon  him,J  and  in  the  audience,  no  doubt, 
of  all  present,  the  Father,  from  heaven,  proclaimed, 
This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.1" 

*  This  being  the  sign  by  which  he  was  to  know  him.  John.  i. 
32—34. 

fFor  herein  he  was  made  manifest  to  Israel.  John  i.  31.  Comp. 
Luke  iii.  21,  22. 

J  Why,  in  the  interpretation  of  this  passage  and  its  parallels,  so 
many  efforts  have  been  made,  to  exclude  the  form  and  retain  only 
the  motion  of  the  dove,  I  am  unable  to  perceive.  Luke  says,  "  The 
Holy  Ghost  descended  »w/*amtf  ItSei,  »Vei  ntptseptv  in  a  corporeal  form, 
like  a  dove  upon  him."  That  the  divine  Spirit,  on  that  occasion, 
assumed  some  visible  form  is  evident,  and  why  not  that  of  a  dove, 
the  well-known  emblem  of  innocence  1  Grotius  and  Dr.  Owen, 
with  much  probability,  supposed  that  what  was  visible  was  a 
bright  flame  in  the  shape  of  a  dove. 

"Matt.  iii.  15—17.  Mark  i.  9—11.  and  Luke  iii.  21,  22. 
€omp.  John  xii.  28—30. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE   LAW.  103 

The  same  testimony  also  was  repeated  at  his  trans- 
figuration ;  °  when,  having  taken  with  him  Peter  and 
James  and  John,  a  competent  number  of  credible 
witnesses,  "into  a  high  mountain  apart,*  he  was" 
suddenly  metamorphosed  "  before  them ;"  so  that  his 
face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and  his  raiment  was  white 
as  the  light ;  and,  behold  there  appeared  unto  them, 
(that  is,  unto  the  three  disciples,)  Moses  and  Elias 
talking  with  him,  (Christ,)  and  who,  according  to 
Luke,  appeared  in  glory,  in  the  glory  of  their  heav- 
enly forms,  and  spake  of  his  decease,  which  he  should 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem.  The  sight  so  enraptured 
Peter,  that  he  seems  to  have  thought  it  would  be 
heaven  enough  to  remain  there  :  he  "  said  unto  Je- 
sus, Lord  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here ;  if  thou  wilt, 
let  us  make  here  three  tabernacles :  one  for  thee,  and 
one  for  Moses,  and  one  for  Elias."  "  For,"  accord- 
ing to  Mark,  "  he  wist  not  what  to  say,"  and,  accord- 
ing to  Luke,  he  spake,  "  not  knowing  what  he  said," 
so  powerful  were  his  mingling  sensations  of  fear  and 
joy.  But,  how  short  the  vision !  The  glory  of  heav- 
en cannot  be  sustained  by  the  church  on  earth — the 
glorified  saints  have  no  need  of  tabernacles  made 
with  hands — nor  must  the  most  eminent  of  them  be 
trusted  in  or  worshiped.  Therefore,  while  he  yet 
spake,  behold  a  bright  cloud,  denoting  the  divine 
presence,  overshadowed  them,  that  is,  Jesus,  Moses, 
and  Elias,  the  two  latter  of  whom  the  disciples  saw 
no  more ;  and  behold  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  the 
voice  of  God  the  Father,  which,  repeating  the  testi- 

0  Matt.  xvii.    1—9.    Mark.  ix.  2—10.  and  Luke  ix.  28—36. 

*  Doubtless  one  of  the  mountains  of  Israel,  but  whether  Tabor 
or  Hermon,  or  any  other  of  those  pitched  upon  by  different  wri- 
ters, is  neither  certain  nor  material. 


104  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

mony  given  of  Christ  at  Jordan,  said,  This  is  my  be- 
loved Son,  in  whom  lam  well  pleased,  HEAR  YE  HIM — 
him  in  whom  the  dispensation  of  Moses  "  is  abolish- 
ed,"1' and  the  predictions  of  the  prophets,  repre- 
sented by  that  distinguished  one,  Elias,  are  ful- 
filled;"1 and  who  was  thenceforth  to  be  heard,  be- 
lieved, and  obeyed,  as  the  sole  oracle  and  sovereign 
of  the  church. r  Wherefore,  as  that  thick  cloud, 
which  appeared  on  mount  Sinai,  might  be  designed 
to  symbolize  the  dark  and  threatening  dispensation, 
through  which  God  spake  to  national  Israel,  by  Mo- 
ses, this  bright  cloud,  which  appeared  on  the  mount 
where  our  Lord  was  transfigured,  might,  in  like  man- 
ner, be  designed  as  an  emblem  of  the  luminous  and 
glorious  dispensation  of  the  gospel,  through  which 
God  speaks  to  spiritual  Israel,  by  his  Son.* 

Upon  this  incontrovertible  and  unequivocal  testi- 
mony borne  to  the  divine  Sonship  of  Christ,  the 
apostle  Peter,  as  one  of  those  who  heard  it  deliver- 
ed, still  confidently  relied,  when,  in  prospect  of  his 
approaching  dissolution,  he  recommended  to  surviv- 
ing saints,  an  unwavering  steadfastness  in  the  faith 
of  the  gospel :  "  I  will  endeavour,"  said  he,  "  that  ye 
may  be  able,  after  my  decease,  to  have  these  things 
always  in  remembrance.  For  we  have  not  followed 
cunningly  devised  fables,  when  we  made  known  un- 
to you  the  power  and  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  his  majesty.  For 
he  received  from  God  the  Father,  honor  and  glory, 
when  there  came  such  a  voice  to  him,  from  the  excellent 
glory,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased.  And  this  voice  which  came  from  heaven 

P2Cor.    iii.    13.     1  Matt,  v.  17.      rPsal.    ii.  6.  xlv.  11.  arid 
Mark  ix.  7.     8  Heb.  i.  2. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY  OF   THE    LAW.  105 

we  heard,    when  we    were  with   him  in  the  holy 
mount." l 

From  Him,  to  whose  divine  Sonship  God  the  Fa- 
ther bore  this  unequivocal  testimony,  all  the  writers  of 
the  New  Testament  received  their  call  to  the  apostol- 
ic office  and  the  instructions  and  gifts  requisit  to  the 
performance  of  their  apostolic  work.  Paul  excepted, 
they  were  all  of  the  original  twelve  whom  He  ordain- 
ed and  sent  forth  to  preach,  endued  with  power  to 
work  miracles,  in  confirmation  both  of  their  mission 
and  their  doctrine.  u  With  the  above  exception,  it 
can  scarcely  be  doubted,  that  they  were  all  among 
those  who  were  converted  under  the  ministry  and 
baptized  by  the  hands  of  John  the  baptist,  whom 
God  sent  to  preach  and  baptize, w  and  thereby,  in- 
strumentally,  to  make  ready  a  peo2}le  prepared  for 
the  Lord,  the  Lord  Christ,x  and  whom,  as  soon  as  he 
was  made  manifest  to  Israel,  they  followed.3"  Nay, 
comparing  Matt.  iii.  with  chap.  iv.  18 — 22,  and  Luke 
iii.  21,  22,  it  must  seem  highly  probable,  that  (ex- 
cepting as  above)  they  were  all  present  at  the  bap- 
tism of  Christ,  and  of  course  that  they  heard  the 
voice  of  the  Father  proclaiming  Him  to  be  his  Son ; 
and  three  of  them  we  know  heard  this  proclamation 
when  it  was  repeated  at  the  time  of  his  transfigura- 
tion. Are  they,  then,  to  be  charged  with  unreason- 
able credulity  for  believing  that  he  was  THE  SON  OF 
GOD  ?  It  is  certain,  too,  that  they  were  of  those 
among  whom  "  The  LORD  JESUS  went  in  and  out," 
during  the  whole  of  his  public  ministry,  and  "to 
whom  also  he  showed  himself  alive  after  his  passion, 

1  2  Peter  i.  14—18.  u  Mark.  iii.  13—19.  Comp.  Matt.  x.  1—4. 
and  Luke  ix.  1,  2,  10.  wJohn  i.  6,  7,  33.  *  Luke  i.  17. 
y  John  i.  35—49. 

14 


106  THE   DELIVERY   AND  [SER.    III. 

by  many  infallible  proofs,  being  seen  of  them  forty 
days,  and  speaking  of  the  things  pertaining  to  the 
kingdom  of  God."55  Now,  having  had  such  advan- 
tages of  intimacy  with  Christ,  and  having  "  left  all " 
their  worldly  interests,  and  hazarded  their  lives  for 
his  sake  and  in  his  cause  and  service,  was  not  their 
oral  testimony  concerning  him  worthy  of  credit, 
wherever  they  delivered  it?  And  is  not  their  writ- 
ten testimony  concerning  him  equally  credible, 
wherever  it  is  granted  1 

That  they  did  not  understand  some  things  spoken 
to  them  by  their  divine  Master  while  he  tabernacled 
on  earth,  is  indeed  manifest  from  their  own  books. 
But  this,  instead  of  weakening,  greatly  strengthens 
the  evidence  that  they  wrote  under  the  infallible 
guidance  of  divine  inspiration;  for,  without  such 
guidance,  they  would  have  remained  under  those 
mistakes,  and  would  have  written  accordingly ;  be- 
sides, had  they  been  left  to  the  common  dictates  of 
proud  reason,  even  when  their  mistakes  were  made 
known  unto  them,  they  would  not  have  recorded 
them.  While,  therefore,  their  mistakes  serve  to 
show  that  they  had  no  more  natural  sagacity  than 
other  men,  nay,  that  in  some  instances  they  were 
specially  dull  of  apprehension  and  "  slow  of  heart 
to  believe,"  their  record  subsequently  made  of  these 
mistakes  and  of  their  own  and  one  another's  faults, 
serves  equally  to  prove,  that  when  they  wrote  their 
books,  and  which  was  not  till  after  Christ  was  glo- 
rified, they  were  under  the  enlightening,  directing, 
and  constraining,  as  well  as  sanctifying  influence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  To  this,  the  history  of  their  illu- 

2  Acts  i.  3.  21. 


oER.  III.]  AUTHORITY    OF    THE    LAW.  107 

mination  exactly  corresponds.  For  Christ,  in  human 
nature,  "  being  iby  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted"  to 
heaven,  and  "having,"  as  Mediator,  "received  of 
the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  that  is, 
having  received  the  Holy  Ghost  according  to  the 
Father's  promise,a  He,  agreeably  to  his  own  promise 
made  to  his  apostles, b  "  shed  forth"  the  same  up- 
on them  ;  °  and  which  was,  in  .them,  the  Spirit  of 
truth,  to  guide  them  into  all  the  truth* — to  ena- 
ble them  to  understand,  as  well  as  to  remember  all 
things  which  he  had  spoken  unto  them,6 — to  guide 
them  into  the  true  design  and  reference  of  Old  Tes- 
tament types  and  predictions,  which,  therefore,  can 
only  be  gathered  with  certainty  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament ; f  and,  especially  to  reveal  to  them  whatever, 
in  regard  to  doctrine,  ordinances,  Christian  duties  or 
church-discipline,  was  farther  requisit,  to  complete  the 
sacred  canon,  the  only  Rule  of  our  faith  and  prac- 
tice ;s  also  as  a  Spirit  of  prophecy,  to  show  them 
and  to  foretell  by  them,  things  to  come,  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world.* 

a  Psal.  Ixviii.  18.  b  John  xv.  26,  and  xvi.  7.  c  Acts.  ii.  33. 
dJohn  xvi.  13.  c  Ibid  xiv.  26.  fLuke  xxiv.  44 — 46.  Acts  iii. 
21,  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  *  2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17. 

*  Hence  appears  the  great  mistake  of  those  who  interpret  this 
promise  with  reference  to  all  the  regenerate  under  the  present  dis- 
pensation. For  if  they  were  all  guided  by  the  Spirit  into  all  the 
truth,  they  would,  of  course,  all  understand  every  part  of  revealed 
truth  exactly  alike  ;  whereas,  not  to  speak  of  different  denomina- 
tions of  professed  Christians,  even  in  any  one  denomination  of 
them,  scarcely  can  two  individuals  be  found,  either  among 
public  teachers  or  private  professors,  who  thus  perfectly  agree  in 
their  understanding  of  the  doctrine  and  precepts  of  revelation. 
But,  understood  as  it  was  meant,  that  is,  with  reference  to  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament,  this  promise  was  evidently  verified : 
for  although,  being  all  men  of  like  passions  with  others,  (Acts  xiv, 


108  THE   DELIVERY  AND  [SEE  III. 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked,  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
thus  shed  down  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  given 
to  the  apostles  to  guide  them  into  all  the  truth,  was 
also  at  the  same  time  given  to  them,  and  probably  to 
all  the  rest  of  the  hundred  and  twenty  disciples,  (then 
specially  according  in  faith  and  hope  of  the  promise,) 
in  his  miraculous  gifts,  by  which  the  donation  was 
rendered  visible  and  mdubitable.  As  a  sign  to  them- 
selves and  to  one  another,  the  Spirit,  in  the  likeness  of 
fire,  and  in  the  form  of  cloven  tongues,  (an  emblem 
of  the  divers  languages  in  which  they  were  to  preach 
the  gospel)  sat  visibly  on  each  of  them.  And  they 
were  all  jilled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  began  to  speak 
with  other  tongues  tyc.*  And,  as  a  sign  to  the 


15.)  they,  as  such,  differed  sometimes  in  opinion,  and  in  some  cases, 
adopted  measures  dictated  by  carnal  policy,  by  which  they  vainly 
hoped  to  serve  the  cause  of  Christ,  (Acts.  xvi.  3.)  or,  at  least,  to 
secure  themselves  from  reproach  and  persecution  ;  (Acts.  xxi.  22 
26.  and  Gal.  ii.  11 — 14  ;)  yet,  in  writing  their  respective  histories 
and  epistles,  while,  in  divine  sovereignty,  their  stile  and  manner 
were  preserved  sufficiently  distinct — while  some  recorded  facts 
which  others,  for  this  reason,  were  caused  to  omit — and  while,  as 
occasion  required,  one  enlarged  more  on  this  doctrine,  duty  or  privi- 
lege, and  another  on  that,  they  were  all,  in  regard  to  matter,  so  con- 
stantly under  the  infallible  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  truth,  that  we 
hazard  nothing  in  affirming,  that,  rightly  interpreted,  they  never, 
on  any  subject,  contradict  themselves  or  one  another.  The 
judgment  which  Paul,  on  a  matter  of  difficulty  in  the  church  at 
Corinth,  gave  without  commandment  or  revelation  from  the  Lord, 
only  furnishes  additional  evidence,  that  he  was  guided  by  the 
spirit  of  truth ;  for  though  he  inserted  it  in  his  inspired  epistle,  he 
carefully  excepted  it  from  what  he  wrote  by  inspiration.  1  Cor. 
vii.  6.  25. 

*  Whether  this  is  said  of  the  twelve  only,  or  of  the  seventy 
also,  or  of  all  the  hundred  and  twenty  mentioned,  Chap.  i.  15,  has 
been  a  question  among  commentators  and  critics.  The  context 


SEC.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE    LAW.  109 

multitude,  whom  the  rumor  thereof  presently  brought 
together,  this  miraculous  gift  of  tongues  then  con- 
furnishing  no  clue  in  favor  of  the  second  opinion,  we  pass  it  with- 
out farther  remark.  For  restricting  this  miraculous  afflatus  to  the 
twelve,  a  plausible  argument  has  been  raised  from  the  verbal  con- 
nexion between  the  last  verse  of  the  preceding  chapter  and  thejirst 
verse  of  this;  proceding  on  the  assumption  that  the  apostles,  re- 
stored to  their  original  number  of  twelve,  by  the  accession  of  Mat- 
thias, are  exclusively  meant  by  the  all,  here  said  to  have  been  with 
one  accord  in  one  place.  But  the  subject  of  the  sacred  historian 
being  manifestly  the  assembly  of  the  disciples,  which,  including 
others  with  the  eleven  and  the  seventy,  consisted  of  about  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty,  the  account  concerning  Matthias,  is  but  a  part 
of  their  continued  history  ;  he  being  added  to  them^  by  being  added 
to  the  eleven  who  were  of  them.  The  farther  narration,  therefore, 
(Chap.  ii.  1  &c.)  that  "  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully 
come  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place,"  and  that  the 
Spirit,  assuming  a  visible  appearance,  sat  on  each  of  them,  must 
be  understood,  not  of  the  twelve  only,  nor  yet  of  all  the  disciples 
then  at  Jerusalem,  but  of  the  hundred  and  twenty,  specially  treated 
of  by  the  historian. 

Hence,  although  this  number  included  more  than  the  twelve 
and  the  seventy,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  included  women, 
as  supposed  by  Dr.  Gill,  on  verse  4,  and  by  Dr.  Doddridge, 
on  verse  3,  note  d.  For,  although  at  the  place  where  they 
abode,  from  the  ascension  of  Christ,  till  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
the  apostles,  (ver.  14.)  "  all  continued  with  one  accord  in  prayer 
and  supplication  with  the  women,"  those  godly  women  who 
followed  Christ  from  Galilee,  and  were  at  his  cross  and  at  his 
grave,  among  whom  was  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus.. .  and  with  his 
brethren,  his  kinsmen  after  the  flesh,  who  being  converted  from 
their  former  prejudices,  (John  vii.  5.)  were  among  his  disciples ; 
yet  the  hundred  and  twenty  to  whom  Peter  addressed  his  speech 
concerning  the  election  of  one  to  supply  the  place  of  Judas,  were 
evidently  all  males ;  for  in  ver.  16,  he  calls  them  men  and  bre- 
thren ;  and  indeed  the  15th  verse  itself,  on  which  those  of  the  con- 
trary opinion  chiefly  rely,  may  safely  be  so  interpreted  as  to  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  our  argument ;  for,  as  Dr.  Lightfoot  ob- 
serves, the  names  there  mentioned  may  justly  be  taken,  not  only 
for  persons,  as  all  agree, but  for  men,  (as  in  the  Syriac  version,)  nay, 


110  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SEC.  III. 

ferred  by  the  Spirit,  was  immediately  employed  in 
their  hearing  and  to  their  great  amazement : — They 

for  men  of  name,  or  distinction,  (as  suggested  by  the  Arabic,)  and  so 
as  denoting,  besides  the  apostles,  emphatically  the  seventy,  and  other 
brethren  already  distinguished  by  grace  and  gifts ;  probably  all  min- 
isters of  the  word,  who  had  companied  with  the  apostles,  all  the  time 
the  Lord  Jesus  went  in  and  out  among  them,  ver.  21 ;  and  of  whom, 
he  gave  Peter  to  know,  that  one  must  be  chosen  to  the  apostleship, 
and  on  whom,  as  on  the  Apostles,  (making  in  all  about  a  hundred 
and  twenty,)  he  then,  by  the  Spirit,  conferred  the  gift  of  tongues, 
that  they  might  preach  the  gospel  intelligibly  to  all  the  nations  among 
whom  he  designed  to  send  them.  For  the  same  purpose,  and  in 
like  manner,  that  is,  without  human  instrumentality,  he  bestowed 
the  gift  of  tongues,  in  the  first  instance,  upon  gentiles  also.  Acts 
x.  46.  Afterward,  it  was  given  by  the  laying  on  of  the  apostles' 
hands.  Acts.  viii.  15 — 17,  and  xix.  6.  Thus,  as  by  the  miracu- 
lous confusion  of  tongues,  the  seed  of  the  Jirst  Adam  were  scat- 
tered to  people  the  world  ;  Gen.  xi.  7,  8,  and  Deut.  xxxii.  8 ;  so, 
by  the  doctrine  propagated  by  this  miraculous  gift  of  tongues,  the 
seed  of  the  second  Adam  are  gathered  to  people  the  church.  John 
xvii.  20.  and  Eph.  i.  1 0.  The  former,  in  point  of  fact,  defies  in- 
Jidelity  itself;  for  none  can  deny  that  language,  originally  one,  has, 
according  to  Gen.  xi.  1.  9.  become  multiplied  into  many.  But  the 
latter,  as  a  miracle,  is  no  greater  than  the  former,  and  therefore 
is  equally  credible. 

Concerning  this  famous  hundred  and  twenty,  let  it  be  farther 
observed — 

1.  That  they  were  not,  as  some  have  thought,  all  the  disciples  of 
Christ  then  living;   for,  of  "  above  five   hundred  brethren,"  to 
whom,  after  his  resurrection,  he  appeared  at  once  in  Galilee,  "  the 
greater  part  remained"  even  down  to  the  time  when  Paul  wrote 
his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians ;   Chap.  xv.  6,  compared  with 
Matt,  xxviii.  10. 

2.  That  they  (the  120)  were  not  only  distinguished  among  the 
disciples,  by  a  remarkable  steadfastness  in  the  truth  and  devoted- 
ness  to  God,  but  favored  also  with  an  extraordinaiy  faith  in  the 
promise  of  the  Spirit's  descent,  and  probably,  too,  with  some  in- 
timations that  the  approaching  day  of  Pentecost  was  the  time  ap- 
pointed for  its  fulfilment;    and   hence,   on  that  day  they  were 
all  in  one   place,   waiting   for   it,  with  an  accordance   in  faith 


SEC.  III.].          AUTHORITY   OF   THE    LAW.  Ill 

said  one  to  another,  Behold,  duly  observe  this  strange 
fact — are  not  all  these  which  speak  Gallileans  I — all 

and  hope  and  prayer,  peculiar  to  themselves.    See  Luke  xxiv.  49. 
and  Acts  i.  4,  5.     And, 

3.  That  to  suppose,  as  some  do,  that  they  (the  120)  were  all  the 
disciples  of  Christ  then-  at  Jerusalem,  is  utterly  unreasonable ;  for 
the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost  being  commonly  known  among 
them,  and  the  time  being  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  they 
were  accustomed  to  meet  together,  nay  the  great  day  of  Pente- 
cost, when  specially  the  expectation  of  its  fulfilment,  however  faint- 
ly, might  prevail  among  them,  they  no  doubt,  male  and  female,  as 
generally  as  possible,  repaired  to  Jerusalem,  where  the  favor  was 
to  be  granted,  and  convened  with  the  hundred  and  twenty,  though 
inferior  to  them  in  their  faith  and  hope  of  the  promise,  and  in  the 
part  which  they  shared  in  the  donation.  Probably  others  also, 
both  citizens  and  foreigners,  from  motives  of  curiosity,  attended 
the  meeting :  for  otherwise,  how  came  the  wonder  to  be  poised 
abroad  ?  Unless,  indeed,  "  the  sound  from  heaven,"  that  came 
"like  a  rushing  mighty  wind"  announced  it. 

Nor  does  the  number  of  the  assembly  hereby  supposed,  imply 
any  objection  ;  for  the  place  in  which  they  met,  was  not  any  pri- 
vate mansion  in  the  city,  but  the  temple,  the  house  of  God ;  for 
had  they  not  met  there  on  that  day,  how  could  their  meeting 
there  on  successive  days  be  called,  as  in  verse  46,  a  continuing 
daily  in  the  temple  ?  The  suggestion  of  some,  that  the  Jews  would 
not  have  permitted  it,  vanishes  at  the  recollection  that  HE  whose 
"  dominion  ruleth  over  all,"  could  with  infinite  ease  restrain 
their  opposition,  that  the  transactions  of  that  notable  day,  by  their 
occurring  at  the  temple,  might  be  the  more  public  and  the  less  lia- 
ble to  contradiction.  Thereby  also,  he  literally  fulfilled  his  an- 
cient promise,  "  My  house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer  for  all 
people ;"  Is.  Ivi.  7 ;  there  being  at  that  time  some  devout  persons 
in  it  "  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven,"  or  of  the  then  known 
world.  Acts  ii.  5. 

To  this  general  view  of  the  case,  (and  in  my  opinion  to  no  oth- 
er,) all  the  recorded  events  of  that  memorable  day  harmoniously 
correspond.  The  apartment  of  the  temple  then  occupied,  was 
not  the  upper  room,  mentioned  Acts  i.  13  ;  for  admitting  that  to 
have  been  a  room  of  the  temple,  (and  which,  from  Luke  xxiv.  53, 


112  THE   DELIVERY  AND  [SEC.  III. 

men  of  the  same  province — and  illiterate  men  too, 
knowing,  heretofore,  no  language  but  their  own,  and 


is  probable,)  it  was,  as  the  context  shows,  the  place  where  the  apos- 
tles, and  some  other  disciples  of  both  sexes  abode  during 
the  interval  of  ten  days  between  the  ascension  of  Christ 
and  the  descent  of  the  Spirit,  and  not  the  place  of  their  assem- 
blage on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Indeed,  recollecting  that  in 
the  language  of  scripture,  the  temple  sometimes  denotes  any 
or  all  of  the  buildings  that  were  within  its  surrounding  wall ; 
(see  Matt.  xxi.  12 — 14,  and  John  viii.  2,  3 ;)  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  understand  that  the  meeting  in  question,  was  held  in  any 
room  of  the  temple,  properly  so  called,  or  that  any  one  of  them 
was  large  enough  for  the  purpose ;  but  probably  in  "  the  great 
court,"  the  court  of  Israel,  which  included  "  the  court  of  the 
priests ;"  the  two  being  separated  only  by  a  low  partition,  which 
although  it  served  for  distinction,  was  no  obstruction  to  sight  or 
hearing ;  and  which  together,  according  to  Joseplms  and  the  Tdl- 
mudic  writers,  extended  a  hundred  and  eighty-seven  cubits,  from 
east  to  west,  and  a  hundred  and  thirty-Jive  from  north  to  south  ; 
that  is,  allowing,  as  is  commonly  done,  21.889  inches,  or  about 
21  f  inches  to  the  cubit,  it  formed  a  vast  oblong  of  near  400  feet 
by  about  244.  See  2  Chron.  iv.  9.  and  Dr.  Lightfoot's  works,  Vol. 
1.  p.p.  1088.  1090.  Also  "  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,"  by  Wm. 
Brown,  D.  D.  Vol.  1.  p.  49. 

This  spacious  inclosure  being  under  the  care  of  the  Levites,  the  use 
of  it  might  the  more  readily  be  granted  to  the  disciples  through  the 
influence  of  Barnabas,  generally  believed  to  have  been  one  of  the 
seventy,  and  who  was  a  Levite,  Acts  iv.  36.  Moreover,  its  adjacency 
to  the  still  larger  court,  commonly  called  the  outer  court,  or  the 
court  of  the  Gentiles,  easily  accounts  for  the  convenient  approach 
of  the  multitude,  where,  in  divers  languages,  they  heard  the  mi- 
raculous gift  exemplified,  at  which  those  who  understood  the  lan- 
guages spoken,  were  amazed,  while  others,  in  their  ignorance, 
mocked — and  subsequently,  in  their  native  language,  the  sermon 
preached  by  Peter,  under  which  three  thousand  of  them  were  con- 
verted. And  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  being  excedingly  various, 
(1  Cor.  xii.  4 — 11.)  while  the  hundred  and  twenty,  by  the  mira- 
culous gift  of  divers  tongues,  were  enabled  intelligibly  to  address 
those  present  of  whatever  nation,  the  other  disciples,  male  and  fe- 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE   LAW.  113 

that  but  imperfectly — And  how  hear  we  every  man 
of  us,  one  or  more  of  them  speaking  correctly  in 
our  own  tongue,  wherein  we  were  born.  Nay,  hav- 
ing admitted  that  although,  by  descent,  they  were  all 
Jews,  yet  that,  by  nativity  and  language,  they  were 
of  fifteen  different  countries,  they  repeat  and  there- 
by confirm  the  matter  of  their  amazement,  saying, 
We,  diversified  as  we  are  in  our  languages,  do  se- 
verally hear  them,  with  a  correspondent  diversity, 
speak  in  our  respective  tongues,  the  wonderful  works 
of  God.  Astonishing  indeed  !  But  they  spake  as  the 
Spirit  gave  them  utterance.  Others,"  neverthe- 
less, "mocking  said,  These  men  are  full  of  new 
wine."  What,  a  fit  of  drunkenness  give  them  the 

male,  were  so  filled  with  the  consolations  and  so  increased  in 
the  ordinary  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  that  in  the  sense  of  Joel's  predic- 
tion, these  sons  and  daughters  of  Israel — these  servants  and  hand- 
maidens  of  the  Lord,  all  prophesie d.  Of  the  males,  some  preach- 
ed and  others  exhorted,  each  of  which  is  prophesying  ;  1  Cor.  xiv. 
3 ;  and  of  the  rest  male  and  female,  probably  some,  like  Deborah, 
(Judges  iv.  4.)  like  Simeon,  (Luke  ii.  25 — 35.)  like  the  four  virgin 
daughters  of  Philip,  (Acts  xxi.  9.)  and,  like  Agabus,  (ver.  10,  11.) 
foretold  events;  others,  like  Miriam,  (Exo.  xv.  20,  21.)  and,  like 
some  in  the  church  at  Corinth,  (1  Cor.  xiv.  2,  5.)  might  have 
the  gift  of  extemporizing  in  poetry ;  some,  like  Anna,  (Luke  ii. 
36 — 38.)  might  in  a  rapturous  manner  give  thanks,  and  in  an 
edifying  way  talk  of  Jesus  ;  and  others,  nay,  at  intervals,  all  to- 
gether, might  sing  and  pray  in  the  Spirit,  which,  in  males  or  fe- 
males, is  to  prophesy.  1  Chron.  xxv.  1 — 3.  and  1  Cor.  xi.  4,  5. 
Similar  meetings,  in  regard  to  the  abundant  consolations  and  or- 
dinary gifts  of  the  Spirit,  have  occasionallly  been  enjoyed  by  the 
saints  in  ail  successive  generations,  and  such  will  be  more  frequent 
in  the  latter  days.  See  Joel  ii.  28,  29,  which  only  began  to  be 
fulfilled  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Acts.  ii.  16 — 18. 

An  honest  desire  to  silence  gainsayers — to  check  fanatics — and 
to  assist  Christians,  it  is  hoped  will  be  considered  a  sufficient  apology 
for  the  inconvenient  length  of  this  note. 

15 


114  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

knowledge  of  languages  !  A  short  way,  to  be  sure, 
for  a  man  to  become  a  linguist !  Yet  this  is  but  a 
genuine  instance  of  infidel  wisdom  ;  which  often  ad- 
mits the  grossest  absurdities,  rather  than  the  probable, 
nay,  well  authenticated  facts  of  divine  revelation. 
In  palliation,  however,  of  their  offense,  let  it  be  re- 
collected, that  these  mockers  were  not  of  those  Jews, 
convened  from  the  several  countries,  in  the  respec- 
tive languages  of  which  the  disciples  spake,  but  oth- 
ers, natives  of  Judea,  who  understood  no  language 
but  that  which  was  then  common  among  themselves,* 
and  to  whom,  therefore,  the  foreign  languages  mira- 
culously spoken  by  the  disciples,  were  wholly  unin- 
telligible, and  so  might  be  taken,  by  them,  for  the 
mere  cant  and  gibberish  of  men  intoxicated,  perhaps 
too,  they  had,  at  that  moment,  forgotten  the  hour, 
by  adverting  to  which  the  apostle  Peter  refuted  and 
silenced  the  calumny.  "  These,"  said  he,  "  are  not 
drunken  as  ye  suppose,  seeing  it  is  but  the  third  hour 
of  the  day,"  that  is,  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning ; 
whereas,  no  Jew  making  any  pretensions  to  religion, 
or  even  to  common  decency,  used  any  inebriating  li- 
quor till  after  morning  prayer,  the  stated  time  of 
which  ended  at  the  fourth  hour,  ten  o 'clock. ,f 

Hitherto,  (save  in  notes)  we  have  excepted  Paul; 
he  not  being  converted  till  after  the  ascension  of 
Christ  to  heaven  and  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  on 
the  day  of  Petecost.  But  although  he  was  not,  like 
the  original  ticelve,  called  to  the  apostleship  while 
Christ  was  upon  earth ;  and  therefore  spake  of  him- 
self as,  in  this  respect,  "one  born  out  of  due  time," 

*  Which  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  the  Syriac  OF 
Chaldee. 
f  Chaldee  Paraph,  on  Eccl.  x.  17. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE    LAW.  115 

an  abortive  ;  b  he,  nevertheless,  had  all  the  qualifica- 
tions of  an  apostle,  nay,  in  one  particular  exceded  all 
the  rest.  They  indeed  saw  Christ  after  his  resurrec- 
tion, and  at  the  time  of  his  ascension,  c  but  Paul  saw 
him  after  he  was  glorified  :  and  who  said  to  him,  "  I 
have  appeared  unto  thee  for  this  purpose,  to  make 
thee  a  minister  and  a  witness,"  that  is,  of  his  resur- 
rection ;  a  minister,  a  preacher  of  the  word,  he  might 
have  made  him,  by  bestowing  on  him  grace  and 
gifts,  without  appearing  to  him  in  person  ;  but  not  a 
competent  witness  of  his  resurrection,  and  therefore 
not  an  apostle/  To  this  Paul  had  respect,  when, 
to  silence  those  who  denied  his  apostolic  authority, 
he  said,  Am  I  not  an  apostle  ?  —  Have  I  not  seen 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ?  e  That  in  spiritual  gifts,  he 
was  not  inferior  to  any  of  the  rest,  must  be  evident 
to  every  one  who  attentively  reads  THE  ACTS  OF 
THE  APOSTLES,  written  by  Luke.  And  though,  in 
consideration  of  his  former  blasphemy  of  Christ  and 
persecution  of  the  church,  he  accounted  himself  "  the 
least  of  the  apostles,"  yea,  "not  meet  to  be  called 
an  apostle;"  yet,  in  commendation  of  the  grace  of 
God  bestowed  upon  him,  he  said,  "  I  labored  more 
abundantly  than  they  all,"  that  is,  more  than  any 
one  of  them  all  —  probably  he  traveled  and  preached 
more,  and  the  number  and  length  of  his  epistles 
prove  that  he  wrote  more.f 

How  absurd,  then,  as  well  as  impious  are  all  the 
attempts  of  deistical  writers,  to  reduce  the  credibility 
of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  (the  latter  constantly  referring  to  the  for- 


.  l  Cor.  xv.  8.  c  Matt,  xxviii.  16,  17.  Luke  xxiv. 
50—52;  and  Acts  i.  3.  a  Acts  x.  41.  e  1  Cor.  ix.  1.  f  1  Cor. 
xr.  9,  10. 


116  THE   DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  HI. 

mer,  as  inspired  of  God,)  to  a  par  with  that  ofNuma, 
Mahomet,  the  pope  of  Rome,  and  other  impostors. 
Both  Numa  and  Mahomet  claimed,  indeed,  to  have 
intercourse  with  God,  the  former  by  the  nymph  Ege- 
ria,  and  the  latter  by  the  angel  Gabriel,  but  neither 
had  or  even  pretended  to  have,  either  an  eye  or  an  ear- 
witness  to  the  fact ;  whereas  the  intercourse  which 
God  held  with  Moses  at  Sinai — the  testimony  which 
he  bore  to  the  divine  Sonship  of  Christ  at  Jor- 
dan— and  the  exemplification  of  the  gift  of  tongues 
conferred  on  the  apostles,  with  others,  at  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  were  all  witnessed  and  acknowledged  by 
thousands.  And  though  the  pope  has  claimed  to  be 
the  vicar  of  Christ,  and  to  possess  infallibility,  all 
the  pretended  miracles  by  which  he  and  his  legates 
have  endeavoured  to  establish  his  credibility,  have 
been  useless  trifles — have  been  performed  either  in 
private,  or  among  groups  of  his  credulous  devotees, 
or,  at  least,  only  in  countries  subject  to  his  jurisdic- 
tion, where,  to  avow  a  scruple,  or  even  to  examine  a 
case,  would  have  been  to  hazard  life  ;  wherefore 
they  are  justly  believed  to  have  been  all  mere 
juggles,  or  " lying  wonders"  as  they  are  called  by 
an  inspired  apostle  ;  2  Thess.  ii.  9.  But  the  mira- 
cles of  Moses  in  Egypt,  at  the  Red  sea,  and  in  the 
wilderness — those  of  Christ  in  the  land  of  Judea — 
and  those  of  his  apostles,  performed  in  his  name, 
both  there,  and  afterwards  in  the  gentile  world,  were 
all  important  and  useful — and  though  wrought  in 
public,  and,  therefore,  open  to  the  investigation  both 
of  the  friends  and  foes  of  the  Christian  cause,  the 
reality  of  them  was  never  denied  by  either.  On  the 
contrary,  even  the  chief  priests  and  pharisees,  those 
bitterest  enemies  of  Christ,  said  of  him,  "This 


5ER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE   LAW.  117 

man  doeth  many  miracles ;"  John  xi.  47 ;  and  of 
his  apostles,  Peter  and  John,  "  What  shall  we  do  to 
these  men  1  for  that  a  notable  miracle  (the  healing 
of  the  impotent  man)  hath  been  done  by  them  is  man- 
ifest to  all  them  that  dwell  at  Jerusalem,  and  we 
cannot  deny  it."  Acts  iv.  16.  Nay  more,  their  fool- 
ish and  blasphemous  attempt  to  account  for  the  mir- 
acles of  Christ,  by  imputing  to  him  a  collusion  with 
Satan,  was  itself  admitting  the  actual  occurrence  of 
the  miracles,  and  that  they  were  the  effects  of  super- 
human power. g  But,  could  Satan  himself  raise  the 
dead  1  Let  modern  infidels,  then,  like  ancient  magi- 
cians, confess  This  is  the  finger  of  God.  Exo.  viii.  19. 

Having  thus  considered  some  of  the  internal  evi- 
dences of  the  inspiration  of  the  scriptures,  without 
offering  any  other  apology  for  this  long  digression, 
than  the  importance  of  the  subject  which  it  embra- 
ces, I  return  to  the  text,  confirmed  in  the  belief,  that 
it  is  not  only  the  language  of  Moses,  but  of  Moses 
speaking  as  he  was  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  manifestation  of  the  divine  Majesty  [herein 
recognized,  was  not  only  very  dreadful,  but 

2.  Very  glorious :  The  Lord  who  came  from  Si- 
nai, rose  up  from  Seir,  alluding  to  the  rising  of  the 
Sun ;  he  shined  forth  from  mount  Par  an,  like  the 
Sun  pursuing  his  course  and  shining  in  his  strength. 

For  these  expressions,  The  Jerusalem  Targum, 
as  noticed  by  Bp.  Patrick,  accounts  thus  :  "  When 
God,"  saith  the  Targumist,  "  came  down  to  give  the 
law,  he  offered  it  on  mount  Seir  to  the  Edomites ; 
but  they  refused  it  because  they  found  in  it,  Thou 
shalt  not  kill ;  they  being  much  given  to  war  and 

8  Matt.  xii.  22 — 32. 


118  THE   DELIVERY  AND  [gER.  III. 

blood-shed.  Then  he  offered  it  on  mount  Paran  to 
the  Ishmaelites,  who  also  refused  it  because  they 
found  in  it,  Thou  sJialt  not  steal,  a  vice  very  com- 
mon among  them.  And  then  he  came  to  mount 
Sinai  and  offered  it  to  Israel,  and  they  said,  "All 
that  the  LORD  shall  say  we  will  do."  Now,  although 
this  gloss  is  merely  a  strange  and  unauthorized  con- 
ceit, I  have  thought  proper  to  mention  it,  partly  for 
its  antiquity,  but  chiefly  because  it  so  aptly  serves  to 
illustrate  the  true  reason  why  such  multitudes  of 
mankind,  on  one  pretence  or  other,  reject  the  Bible; 
namely,  because  it  forbids  vices,  to  the  pursuit  of 
which  they  are  strongly  inclined,  and  enjoins  du- 
ties, to  the  observance  of  which  they  are  decidedly 
opposed.  And  though  many,  while  filled  with  dread 
under  alarming  sermons,  like  the  Israelites,  when 
they  heard  the  book  of  the  covenant,"  say,  "All 
that  the  LORD  hath  said  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient  ;h 
yet,  like  them,  they  soon  relapse  into  former  sins ; 
and  so,  like  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in  the  days  of 
Christ,  "  they  say,  and  do  not." i  It  is  certain  how- 
ever, that  these  manifestations  were  made,  not  to  the 
Edomites,  nor  to  the  Ishmaelites,  but  to  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel.  Of  them  Moses  had  spoken  in  ver.  1 ; 
and  here,  continuing  their  history,  he  says,  "  The  LORD 
came  from  Sinai  and  rose  up  from  Seir  unto  them" — 
unto  them,  observe,  and  not  to  some  other  people. 

The  words  plainly  evince  that  at  each  of  the  pla- 
ces named,  God  had  appeared  to  Israel  in  some  mag- 
nificent manner,  or  in  some  marvellous  work.  The 
facts,  too,  are  upon  record.  At  Sinai,  as  noticed 
already,  he  gave  them  very  terrible,  and  yet  very 

h  Exo.  xxiv.  7.      'Matt,  xxiii.  3. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE    LAW.  119 

glorious  indications  of  his  presence.  The  thick 
cloud  in  which  he  descended,  the  fearful  thunders 
and  lightnings  which  proceded  from  it,  and  the 
convulsion  of  the  whole  mountain  beneath  it,  all  de- 
clared that  God  was  there.  At  Seir  when  they  were 
compassing  the  land  of  Edom,  his  providential  pre- 
sence with  them  was  manifested,  both  in  the  judicial 
death  of  many  and  in  the  miraculous  preservation  of 
the  residue,  equally  liable — the  former  by  the  stings 
of  fiery  serpents,  sent  among  them  as  a  scourge  for 
their  murmurings,  and  the  latter  by  a  sight  of  the- 
brazen  serpent  prescribed  as  the  sovereign  and  only 
remedy. k  And  at  Paran,  he  granted  them  repeated 
manifestations  of  his  presence  and  tokens  of  his  fa- 
vor. There  the  cloud  first  rested  when  they  had  re- 
moved from  Sinai,1 — there  the  Lord  instituted  the 
order  of  the  seventy  elders,  as  helps  to  Moses,  and 
descending  in  a  cloud,  conferred  on  them  their  re- 
quisit  qualifications, m — and  from  thence,  by  his  com- 
mand, the  spies  were  sent  to  reconnoiter  the  pro- 
mised land. n  Moreover,  between  Paran  and  To- 
phel,  and  probably  at  the  foot  of  the  former,  Moses, 
led  by  divine  inspiration,  rehearsed  the  law  to  them — 
that  is,  delivered  to  them  what  is  contained  in  this 
book.  ° 

Nevertheless,  it  is  not  improbable,  that  in  these 
figurative  expressions,  Moses  referred  to  something 
which,  at  the  giving  of  the  law,  was  common  to  all 
those  places ;  for,  as  the  rising  Sun,  to  which  there 
is  a  manifest  allusion,  instantly  illuminates  distant 
hills,  so  God  manifesting  his  glory  on  Sinai,  might 

k  Numb.  xxi.  4—9.  See  Ser.  I.  p.  28,  29.  and  Ser.  II.  p.  81—91. 
1  Num.  x.  11,  12.  m  Ibid.  xi.  16,  17,  25.  "  Ibid.xiii.  3.  °  Deut. 
i.  1,3.  also  chapters  iv.  and  v. 


120  THE   DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

extend  its  refulgence  to  those  neighbouring  moun- 
tains, and  in  their  reflection  of  it,  might  seem  to  rise 
up  from  Seir  and  to  shine  forth  from  Par  an.  Comp. 
Hab.  iii.  3,  4. 

Nor  must  we  forget  his  tributary  glory,  arising 
from  his  retinue  on  that  solemn  occasion ;  he  came 
with  ten  thousands  of  saints,  holy  ones,  by  whom 
are  meant  the  myriads  of  angels  who  then  attended  his 
presence  and  subserved  his  design :  for  they  were 
not  only  his  attendants,  but  his  ministers  also,  at  the 
delivery  of  the  law — the  laic  was  given  by  the  dispo- 
sition of  angels,  and  ordained  by  them,*  in  the  hand  of 
a  mediator,  namely  Moses* p  It  is  worthy  of  remark, 
too,  that,  HE  who  only  descended  on  mount  Sinai, 
DWELLS  in  mount  ZION,  and  that  here,  in  token  of  su- 
perior favor,  he  employs  twice  the  former  number  of 
his  angelic  ministers  :  "  This  is  the  hill  which  God 
desireth  to  dwell  in  ;  yea  the  LORD  will  dwell  in  it  for 
ever."  And  here,  as  if  to  signify,  that,  compared 
with  national  Israel,  the  gospel  church  is  more  hon- 
orable and  more  secure,  "  The  chariots  of  God  are 
twenty  thousand,  even  thousands  of  angels :"  nor 
have  they  the  charge  alone :  the  LORD  is  among  them," 
to  direct  their  ministrations, — "  as  in  Sinai,  so  in  the 
holy  place,"  the  church.  q 

Moses  having  recognized  the  Majesty  of  the  Law- 
giver, manifested  at  the  time  of  his  descent  on  mount 
Sinai, 

II.  Asserts  three  things  concerning  the  law  which 
heathen  delivered. 

*  They  being  employed  in  preparing  and  setting  in  order  the  ta- 
bles on  which  the  law  was  written,  as  we  are  assured  they  were  in 
the  articulation  of  its  words.  Heb.  ii.  2. 

P  Acts  vii.  53.     Gal.  iii.  19.    1  Psal.  Ixviii.  16,  17. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY  OF   THE    LAW. 

First,  whence  it  preceded,  to  wit,  from  the  hand, 
the  right  hand  of  God— -from  his  right  hand  went  a... 
law.  It  was  conceived,  indeed,  in  his  mind,  and  was 
given  as  an  expression  of  his  moral  perfections  ;  yet, 
by  allusion  to  a  man's  writing  or  engraving  with  his 
right  hand,,  this  law  is  said  to  precede  from  the  right 
hand  of  the  Law-giver,  because  by  him  it  was  writ- 
ten or  engraven  upon  tables  of  stone ;  "  the  tables 
were  the  work  of  God,  and  the  writing  was  the  writ- 
ing of  God  graven  upon  the  tables." r  Moreover,  as 
the  right  hand  is  the  more  powerful  and  honorable,8 
the  law  might  be  said  to  emanate  from  the  right  hand 
of  God,  to  denote  its  supreme  authority  and  moral 
excellence;  for  although,  to  fallen  man,  it  is  "the 
ministration  of  death  and  condemnation,"  yet,  in  refer- 
ence to  its  author  and  matter,  it  is  emphatically  glori- 
ous.* 

By  these  remarks,  all  must  perceive  that  I  under- 
stand the  term  law  in  this  place,  with  restriction  to  what 
is  eommonly  called  the  moral  Iaw9  the  law  consist- 
ing exclusively  of  the  decalogue,  the  ten  command- 
ments ;  that  being  all  that  was  written  or  engraven 
on  the  tables,  that  were  delivered  from  the  hand  of 
the  Law-giver.  Deut.  v.  22.  and  x.  4.* 

r  Exo.  xxxii.  16.     8  Ibid.  xv.  6.   Psal.  xliv.  3.     *  2  Cor.  iii.  7.  9. 

*  The  Judgments  given  in  the  Judicial  law,  and  the  rites  en- 
joined in  the  ceremonial  law,  were,  it  is  true,  also  from  God,  and 
by  his  authority  were  binding  upon  Israel.  Of  the  former,  which 
are  chiefly  recorded  in  the  book  of  Exodus,  he  said  to  Moses, 
These  are  the  judgments  which  thou  shalt  set  before  them  ;  Exo. 
xxi.  1 ;  and  of  the  latter,  most  of  which  are  contained  in  the 
book  of  Leviticus,  Moses  having  written  them,  bears  this  testimo- 
ny—  These  are  the  commandments  which  the  LORD  commanded  Mo- 
ses for  the  children  of  Israel  in  mount  Sinai ;  Levit.  xxvii.  34  ; 
mount  Sinai  here  and  in  chap.  xxv.  1.  meaning,  however,  not 

16 


122  THE   DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

Secondly,  for  whom  this  law,  at  that  time,  went 
forth  from  the  hand  of  God ;  to  wit,  for  the  peo- 

strictly  the  mountain  so  called,  from  which  the  commandments  of 
the  moral  and  the  judgments  of  the  judicial  law  were  delivered, 
but  the  wilderness  in  which  that  mountain  stood ;  see  Numb.  i.  1 ; 
for  these  ceremonial  commandments  were  not  given  till  after  the 
Tabernacle  was  erected,  out  of  which  they  were  delivered,  and  to 
the  service  of  which  they  belonged.  Levit.  i.  1.  Nevertheless, 
these  Judgments  and  Rites  were  not,  like  the  ten  commandments, 
written  by  the  finger  of  God,  Exo.  xxxi.  18 ;  nor,  like*  them, 
spoken  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire.  Deut.  v,  22.  They  were  writ- 
ten by  Moses,  as  he  received  them  from  the  mouth  of  God ;  Exo. 
xxiv.  4.  xxxiv.  27.  and  Levit.  i.  1 ;  and  though,  in  Exo.  xxiv.  7. 
the  judgments,  (probably  with  the  moral  precepts,)  and,  in  2  Kings 
xxiii.  2,  21.  these  arid  the  ceremonial  Rites  together,  are  called 
the  book  of  the  covenant,  the  obligation  of  Israel  to  observe  the 
whole,  was,  notwithstanding,  founded  in  the  moral  part,  by  which 
they  were  bound  to  acknowledge  JEHOVAH  alone  as  their  God,  and 
consequently  to  obey  him  in  all  he  should  require  of  them. 

The  moral  law  was  the  first  that  God  delivered  to  Israel  at  Sinai. 
It  was  on  their  literal  (not  spiritual)  observance  of  this  law,  that  he 
suspended  his  grant  of  all  the  temporal  blessings,  by  which  he 
promised  to  distinguish  them  as  a  nation,  and  to  the  enunciation 
of  which  they  replied,  "  All  that  the  LORD  hath  spoken  we  will  do." 
And  these  mutual  declarations  considered,  (all  that  has  been  said 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,)  this  law  is  justly  called  a  cove- 
nant. Exo.  xix.  5,  8.  and  Deut.  v.  2.  Comp.  Is.  i.  19,  20.  Nay, 
the  very  words  which  God  himself  wrote  upon  the  tables  of  stone, 
are  expressly  denominated  the  words  of  the  covenant,  the  ten  com- 
mandments, (Exo.  xxxiv.  28)  arid  the  tables  themselves,  the  tables 
of  the  covenant  which  the  LORD  made  with  Israel.  Deut.  ix.  9. 
While  therefore,  by  divine  appointment,  the  judicial  law,  adapt- 
ed to  the  civil  state  of  Israel,  and  the  ceremonial  law  equally 
adapted  to  their  ecclesiastical  state,  became  appendages  to  the  ori- 
ginal covenant,  the  moral  law  inviolably  remained  the  basis,  to 
which,  without  the  repeal  or  infraction  of  any  of  its  injunctions, 
the  judgments  certainly,  and,  by  consequence,  the  ceremonies 
also,  in  the  tenor  of  their  words,  or  precepts,  harmoniously  cor- 
responded. Exo.  xxxiv.  27.  And  accordingly,  thenceforward  the 
whole  constituted  the  book  of  the  covenant  which  God  made  with 
that  people,  and  by  which  they  were  to  be  governed  in  morals, pol- 


SER.  111.]  AUTHORITY    OF    THE    LAW.  123 

pie  of  Israel ;  "  from  his  right  hand  went  forth  a. .  .law 
for  them."     To  account  for  this  restrictive  clause, 


itics,  and  religion.  See  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  30,  31.  and  comp.  Mai. 
i.  6 — 14.  ii.  1 — 17.iii.  7 — 14.  andiv.  4:  also  Heb.  viii.  9.  and  ix.  1. 
Hence  it  may  be  inferred  with  certainty — 1.  That  while  this  com- 
plex and  temporary  covenant  remained  in  force,  no  Israelite,  by  right- 
ly observing  any  precept  of  the  judicial  or  of  the  ceremonial  law, 
violated  any  command  in  the  moral  law,  rightly  understood. — 2. 
That  whereas  the  moral  law,  like  the  perfections  of  God  of  which 
it  is  a  transcript,  remains  for  ever  immutable,  no  covenant-engage- 
ment which  persons  may  have  entered  into,  nor  any  human  injunc- 
tion, as  that  of  a  parent,  master  or  magistrate,  to  do  what  is  con- 
trary to  that  law,  can  be  binding  on  the  parties  so  engaged  or 
commanded.  See  Acts.  v.  29.  And — 3.  That  an  oath  itself,  taken 
contrary  to  the  tenor  of  the  moral  law,  or,  either  to  do  or  to  abet 
and  protect  others  in  doing  what  that  law  forbids,  can,  in  God's 
account,  impose  no  obligation  on  any  person  or  persons  so  com- 
mitted. To  take  such  an  oath  is  indeed  horribly  wicked  ;  but  de- 
clining to  comply  with  it,  is  only  forbearing  to  commit  the  still 
greater  wickedness  of  acting  in  conformity  to  it.  Thus,  for  in- 
stance, if  the  more  than  forty  Jews,  who  wickedly  bound  them- 
themselves  by  an  oath,  not  to  eat  or  drink  till  they  had  killed  Pault 
had  been  permitted  actually  to  perpetrate  the  bloody  deed,  and 
thereby  to  have  violated  the  divine  command  Thou  shalt  not  killt 
they  would  certainly  have  added  greatly  to  their  wickedness  of  tak- 
ing the  oath;  whereas,  if  they  had  repented  of  their  oath  and 
voluntarily  abandoned  their  murderous  design,  they  would,  so  far, 
have  been  in  the  way  of  duty.  Acts,  xxiii.  12,  13.  And  who  will 
presume  to  deny,  that  it  would  have  been  a  virtue  in  Herod  to  have 
violated  his  iniquitous  oath  by  which  he  had  bound  himself  to  give 
to  the  dancing  daughter  of  Herodias  whatsoever  she  should  ask, 
rather  than  to  have  violated  the  law  of  Go4,  as  he  did,  by  com- 
mitting murder,  that  he  might  give  her  the  head  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist? Matt.  xiv.  6—12.  and  Mark  vi.  21-29. 

Let  none,  however,  construe  these  observations  into  an  apology 
for  the  shocking  crime  of  perjury.  For  whoever  understandingly 
and  willingly  comes  under  the  obligation  of  an  oath  to  do  or  suffer 
anything  which  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  revealed  will  of  God,  is 
most  sacredly  bound  to  compliance  with  the  tenor  of  it ;  nay,  hav- 


124  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SER  III. 

most  commentators  have  understood  the  law  here 
intended  to  be  the  whole  Sinaic  dispensation ;  this 
being  given  only  to  Israel  and  exclusively  for  them. 
But  the  scriptures  referred  to  in  the  preceding  article, 
and  in  the  note  annexed  to  it,  forbid  us  to  adopt  that 
interpretation,  however  conveniently  it  may  seem  to 
accord  with  the  clause  for  them,  and  compel  us  to 
adhere  to  the  interpretation  already  given ;  and  by 
which  we  include  nothing  under  the  term  law,  as 
here  used,  but  the  decalogue,  commonly  called  the 
moral  law. 

Nor  is  the  term  law,  taken  in  this  limited  sense,  at 
all  inconsistent  with  the  restrictive  clause  under  con- 
sideration. For  this  law,  as  delivered  to  Israel  at 
Sinai,  was  specially,  nay  exclusively  for  them.  By 
their  own  confession  it  was  only  to  them,  and  there- 
fore, as  then  spoken,  only  for  them  that  God  uttered  the 
words  of  it ;  "  for  who  is  there  of  all  flesh"  said  they, 
"  that  hath  heard  the  voice  of  the  living  God  speaking 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire,  as  we  have,  and  lived  ?"u — 
For  them,  exclusively  for  their  use,  God  inscribed  the 
commandments  of  this  law  on  the  tables  of  stone 
which  he  delivered  to  Moses ;  who,  addressing  Israel, 
said,  "the  LORD  delivered  unto  me  two  tables  of 
stone,  written  with  the  finger  of  God ;  and  on  them 
was  written  according  to  all  the  words  which  the 

ing  taken  such  oath,  even  though  he  should  afterward  discover 
that  to  comply  with  it  must  tend  to  his  own  hurt,  his  loss  of  repu- 
tation, or  property,  or  both,  he  cannot  violate  it,  but  at  the  most 
awful  peril — that  of  exclusion  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Psal. 
xv.  4.  Nevertheless,  perjury  is  not  the  unpardonable  sin;  for  this, 
as  well  as  for  other  crimes  of  high  degree,  God  may  subsequently 
grant  to  the  criminal  repentance  unto  life.  Acts.  xi.  18,  and  remit 
his  sin,  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ.  Matt.  xii.  31, 
32.  Luke  xxiv.  47.  Rom.  iii.  24.  Comp.  1  Cor.  vi.  9—11. 
u  Deut.  v.  26. 

I 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY  OF   THE    LAW.  125 

LORD  spake  with  you  in  the  mount,  out  of  the  midst 
of  the  fire,  in  the  day  of  the  assembly."  w  And 
though,  to  express  his  holy  indignation  at  their  mak- 
ing and  worshiping  the  molten  calf,  and  to  signify, 
that  thereby  they  had  broken  the  law,  Moses  cast 
those  tables,  out  of  his  hands,  and  brake  them  be- 
fore their  eyes  ;  x  yet  God,  in  like  manner,  wrote  the 
same  commandments  upon  two  other  tables,  which 
Moses,  by  his  direction,  deposited  in  the  ark,  where 
they  were  preserved  inviolate,  and  which,  as  thus 
engraved  and  preserved,  were,  like  the  former  ta- 
bles, only  for  them,  for  their  use.  y  Chiefly,  how- 
ever, this  law,  as  then  delivered  in  the  form  of  a  co- 
venant, was /or  them;  it  being,  as  such,  specially  for 
their  observance  and  for  their  benefit.  See  Exo.  xix. 
5 — 8.  and  xxxiv.  28. 

Here,  however,  we  must  carefully  distinguish  be- 
tween this  special  promulgation  of  the  moral  law,  and 
the  extent  of  its  obligation.  For  the  obligation  which 
the  Israelites  were  under  to  observe  it,  was  none 
other  than  that  which  is  universal  and  perpetual. 
This  obligation  is  founded  in  the  relation  necessari- 
ly subsisting  between  God  as  the  Creator,  and  his 
intelligent  creatures  ;  he  possessing  an  underived  au- 
thority to  require  of  them  whatever  he  thought  fit 
and  proper,  and  which  could  be  nothing  but  what 
was  agreeable  to  his  holy  nature  and  holy  will ;  and 
they  being  indispensably  bound  to  a  perfect  compli- 
ance with  all  his  revealed  requirements,  on  pain  of 
enduring  the  penalties  respectively  annexed  to  them. 
Under  this  obligation  he  brought  both  the  angelic 
nature  and  the  human,  into  being.  Nor  was  there 

w  Dent.  ix.  10.  x  Ibid.  ver.  17.    y  Ibid.  x.  4,  5. 


126  THE   DELIVERY  AND  [SER.    III. 

in  either,  as  they  came  from  the  hand  of  God,  any 
thing  incongruous  to  this  obligation.  That  he  cre- 
ated angels  holy,  has  never,  that  I  know  of,  been 
called  into  question  ;  and  that  he  so  created  man,  is 
clearly  revealed  ;  God  made  man  upright.  z  As 
such,  therefore,  both  must  have  been  naturally  able, 
yea  naturally  inclined,  to  comply  with  the  obligations 
they  were  respectively  under.  Immutability,  how- 
ever, belonged  to  neither.  This  would  have  been 
inconsistent  with' their  ^tate  of  probation,  nay,  with 
,their  creaturely  existence  and  continual  depend- 
ence upon  their  Creator.  Wherefore,  being  left  to 
the  freedom  of  their  own  respective  wills,  and  with- 
out any  provision  or  promise  of  additional  strength 
in  case  of  trial,  they  both  transgressed  and  fell. 

What  was  the  teat  of  angelic  obedience  is  not  re- 
vealed, and  therefore  we  cannot  precisely  determine 
wherein  their  original  sin  consisted.*  All  we  certainly 

2  Eccl.  vii.  29, 

*By  several  inspired  allusions,  however,  to  the  fall  of  angels,  it 
seems  highly  probablathat  their  original  sin  was  pride.  Thus,  for 
instance,  the  fall  of  the  haughty,  aspiring  king  of  Babylon,  is  liken- 
ed to  the  fall  of  Lucifer  from  heaven.  Isa.  xiv.  4 — 17.  Paul  cau- 
tioned Timothy  not  to  promote  a  novice  to  the  office  of  a  bishop,  a< 
pastor,,  "lest,  being  lifted  up  with  pride,  he  should  fall  into  the 
condemnation  of  the.  devil ;"  that  is,  like  him  be  condemned  for 
pride.  \  Tim.  iii.  6.  And  the  war  in  heaven,  of  which  John  had  a 
vision,  though  it  respects  the  war  between  Christ  and  Satan,  car- 
ried on  through  the  instrumentality  of  their  respective  angels,  or 
ministers,  in  the  church  on  earth,  is,  nevertheless,  described  in 
terms  denoting  an  evident  allusion  to  the  original  rebelion  in  heav- 
en, and  to  the  fall  and  ejection  of  the  rebels  from  their  former  ho- 
ly and  happy  condition.  Rev.  xii.  7 — 9. 

The  innocent  occasion  of  that  rebelion,  in  those  once  holy  Spir- 
its, might  be  God's  commanding  them  to  worship  his  Son ;  Heb. 
i,  6  :  and  whieh^if^it  be  provoked  by  a  proclamation  in  heaven, 


SER.  III.]          AUTHORITY   OF   THE   LAW.  127 

know  of  them,  is  that  there  were  elect-angels,  which 
implie^  the  non-election  of  others  ; a  and  that  the  lat- 
ter are  called  the  angels  that  sinned,  and  the  angels 
that  kept  not  their  first  estate,  and  that,  by  the  au- 
thority and  act  of  God,  they  are  reserved  in  chains  of 
darkness  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day. b  The 
elect-angels  we  suppose  were  confirmed  in  Christ  as 
their  Head  of  conservation,  and  that  they  are  all 
ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister  for  them  who 
shall  be  heirs  of  salvation. c 

The  first  penal  injunction  which  God  delivered  to 
man  was  only  prohibitory — forbidding  him,  on  pain 

that  the  Son,  whom  they  were  required  to  worship,  would  assumef 
not  their  nature,  but  the  human;  Heb.  ii.  16;  and  that  he  would 
exalt  the  elect  of  the  human  family  above  them  in  nearness  to  God 
and  communion  with  him.  Rev.  vii.  9 — 12.  Perhaps,  too,  it  was 
announced  among  them,  that  God  had  confirmed  the  standing  and 
secured  the  happiness  of  some  of  them  in  his  Son,  while  he  had 
left  the  rest  dependent  on  their  own  freewill.  Hence  one  of  them, 
it  should  seem,  and  probably  one  who  was  distinguished  above 
others  while  in  a  state  of  rectitude,  felt  the  origin  of  pride — proposed 
rebelion  against  the  Son  of  God  and  those  of  theangelic  spirits,declar- 
ed  to  be  confirmed  in  him  ;  and,  being  followed  in  the  rebelion  by 
all  the  non-elect  angels,  he  is  called  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  de- 
vils, and  he  and  they  are  called  the  devil  and  his  angels.  Markiii.  22. 
Matt.  xxv.  41 .  Now  what  but  the  same  principle  of  pride,  imbibed 
from  Satan,  provokes  the  rebelion  of  Arians,  Socinians,  and  Deists, 
against  the  revealed  requirement,  that  oilmen  should  honor  the  Son 
even  as  they  honor  the  Father?  John  v.23.  And  whence  but  from 
the  same  source,  is  all  that  enmity  manifested  by  self-justiciaries 
against  the  sovereign  discrimination  which  God,  in  election,  has 
made  among  the  human  family?  Rom.  ix.  11 — 24. 

That  pride,  had  proved  fatal  to  Satan,  may  be  concluded  from 
his  care  to  beget  the  same  principle  in  our  first  parents  ;  Gen.  iii. 
5;  nay,  from  his  horrid,  but  fruitless  attempt  on  Christ  himself 
Matt.  iv.  8—9. 

a  1  Tim.  v.  21.'    b  2  Pet.  ii.  4.  and  Jude,  ver.  6.     c  Heb.  i.  14. 


128  THE   DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

of  death,  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  a  specified  tree  ;  "  The 
LORD  GOD  commanded  the  man,  saying,  Of  every 
tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat,  but  of  the 
tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt 
not  eat  of  it  ;  for  in  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou 
shalt  surely  die,"  or  dying,  die,  as  it  is  in  the  He- 
brew ;  d  for,  dying  a  legal  death,  by  transgression,  he 
must,  by  consequence,  die  a  moral  death,  that  is, 
become  unrighteous  and  unholy,  and,  as  such,  be 
subject  to  corporal  death,  and  liable  to  death  eter- 
nal. c  Nor  did  the  effects  of  his  transgression  ter- 
minate in  himself;  human  nature  in  him  became 
guilty  and  totally  depraved,  and  as  such,  with  all 
the  consequent  liabilities,  he  transmitted  it  to  all  his 
posterity  ;  for,  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world 
and  death]  by  sin;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all 
men,  for  that  all  have  sinned.  f 

Man's  obligation  to  obey  God,  nevertheless  remain- 
ed and  must  for  ever  remain  undiminished  :  and  the 
rule  of  his  obedience  is  the  will  of  God,  however 
made  known  to  him.  The  will  of  God,  thus  under- 
stood, consists  of  two  parts—  his  moral  requirements 
and  his  positive  injunctions  —  emanating,  the  former 
necessarily  from  his  moral  perfections,  the  latter  ar- 
bitrarily from  his  sovereign  authority.  His  moral 
requirements,  as  they  necessarily  procede  from  his 
moral  perfections,  so  they  declare  him  to  be  a  holy 
and  righteous  being,  as  clearly  as  the  rays  of  light 
which  necessarily  procede  from  the  Sun,  declare  that 
to  be  a  pure  and  luminous  body;  and  as  the  rays  of 
light  necessarily  preceding  from  the  Sun,  can  nei- 


d  man  nin  moth  tamuth.     Gen.  ii.  16,  17.     e  Ibid.  iii.  19.  and 
Rom.  vi.  23.    flbid.  v.12.  18. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY    OF   THE    LAW.  129 

ther  cease  nor  change,  but   with  the  cessation  or 
change  of  the  Sun  itself;  so  the  moral  requirements 
of  God  can  never  cease  nor  change,  unless  his  own 
BEING  should  cease  or  change  ;  but  as  he  is  the  eter- 
nal God  and  changeth  not,  his  moral  requirements 
are  necessarily  eternal  and  immutable.     Not  so  his 
positive  injunctions.     These,  emanating  arbitrarily 
from  his  sovereign  authority,  he  might  multiply  or 
diminish,  modify,  supplant  or  repeal,  at   pleasure, 
without  undergoing  any  change  in  his  perfections, 
essential  or  moral,  and  without  intermitting,  or  in- 
fringing any  of  his  moral  requirements.     Hence  the 
successive  accumulation  of  positive  institutions  under 
the  Old  Testament,  and  the  comparative  paucity  of 
them  under  the  New.     Hence  also  the  cessation  of 
circumcision — the  change  of  the  Sabbath  from  the 
seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week — the  supplant- 
ing of  the  legal,  by  the  evangelical  dispensation — 
and  the  consequent  abrogation  of  Mosaic  ceremonies, 
and  the  institution  of  gospel-ordinances. 

The  subject  before  us,  however,  claims  our  atten- 
tion only  to  God's  moral  requirements.  These  he 
expressed  in  the  decalogue,  the  ten  commandments  ; 
and  though,  as  delivered  to  Israel  at  Sinai,  these 
commandments  were  emphatically  for  them,  they, 
nevertheless,  (excepting  the  fourth*)  constitute  a 
law,  which,  in  its  moral  tenor,  exactly  corresponds 
to  the  law  of  nature,  which  God  originally  inscribed 

*  "  All  the  laws  of  the  decalogue,"  saith  Eben  Ezra,  "  are  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  nature,  the  law  and  light  of  reason,  and 
knowledge  of  men,  excepting  this.  Wherefore  no  other  has  the 
word  remember  prefixed  to  it ;  there  being  somewhat  in  the  light 
of  every  man's  reason  and  conscience,  to  direct  and  engage  him, 
in  some  measure,  to  the  observation  of  them."  In  Dr.  Gill's  Expos, 
on  Exo.  xx.  8. 

17 


130  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [sER.  III. 

on  the  heart  of  man  ;  and  which,  however  marred  and 
obscured  by  the  fall  and  consequent  total  depravity 
of  our  nature,  is  not  thereby  entirely  obliterated  ;  but 
remains  so  far  legible  in  every  rational  human  being, 
as  to  be  read  by  the  scrutinizing  eye  of  conscience  ; 
and  is  the  rule  by  which  this  faculty  of  the  soul,  (if 
not  judicially  scared?)  always,  according  to  the  light 
of  evidence  received,  necessarily  determines  what  is 
morally  right,  and  what  is  morally  wrong,  and  this 
whether  in  our  own  conduct  or  in  that  of  others.* 

This  law,  too,  like  that  of  the  revealed  command- 
ments corresponding  to  it,  has  respect  both  to  God 
and  to  man — 1.  To  God.  By  the  light  of  reason,  ex- 
ercised according  to  this  law,  mankind  without  any 
revelation  but  that  made  in  the  volume  of  nature, 
may  discover  that  there  is  one  God,  and  essentially 
but  one,  and  that  he,  as  their  Creator  and  the  Cre- 
ator of  all  the  works  of  nature  they  behold,  justly 
claims  their  supreme  love,  and  exclusive  worship, 
adoration  and  dependence.  This  is  plain  from  the 
case  of  the  heathen,  who  have  no  law  but  that  of  na- 
ture, and  no  light  of  evidence,  but  what  comes  through 
the  medium  of  nature ;  and  yet  are  criminal  in  not 
acknowledging  the  Supreme  Author  of  nature  ;  "be- 
cause that  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  manifest 
in  them,"  in  their  own  existence,  or  to  them,  to 
their  rational  apprehension,  through  his  visible 
works ;  "  for  God  hath  showed  it"  (that  which 
may  be  known  of  him)  "unto  them.  For  the  in- 
visible things  of  him,  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that 
s  1  Tim.  iv.  2. 

*  That  such  knowledge  may  consist  with  total  moral  depravity, 
is  evident  in  fallen  angels.  See  Job  i.  6 — 12.  ii.  1 — 10.  and  Mark 
i.  23-26. 


SER.  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF    THE    LAW.  131 

are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead  ;  so 
that  they  are  without  excuse  ;"  and  not  the  less  so, 
on  account  of  the  darkness  and  stupidity  to  'which 
they  were  subjected  for  their  impiety  arid  ingrati- 
tude ;  "because  that  when  they  knew  God,"  by  the 
light  of  nature,  "  they  glorified  him  not  as  God,  nei- 
ther were  thankful;  but  became  vain  in  their  ima- 
ginations, and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened. 
Professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became 
fools."  And  hence  the  abominable  idolatries  and 
unnatural  sensualities  which  follow  in  their  history. 
See  Rom.  i.  19 — 32.  And,  as  the  law  of  nature 
respects  the  duty  of  mankind  towards  God,  so  also — 
2.  Their  duty  toward  each  other  ;  and  which,  in  mat- 
ters of  moral  equity  and  purity,  may  generally  be 
known  by  this  law.  Hence  the  universal  idea  of 
meum  et  tuum,  mine  and  thine,  in  regard  to  hus- 
bands, wives  and  children — houses,  lands  and  chat- 
tels of  every  kind  ;  and  which  is  clearly  perceived 
and  strictly  observed  by  many  of  the  heathen  tribes 
and  nations.  Thus  too,  is  brought  to  light  the  agree- 
ment between  the  injunctions  of  the  moral  law  and 
the  dictates  of  the  law  of  nature  ;  "  For  when  the 
Gentiles,  who  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the 
things  contained  in  the  law,  these,  having  not  the 
law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves  ;"  having  within 
themselves  a  law  correspondent  to  that  which  is  re- 
vealed. By  thus  acting  they  also  "  show  the  work 
of  the  law,"  the  inscription  of  the  law  of  nature, 
"written  in  their  hearts,  their  conscience  also  bear- 
ing witness,"  to  the  moral  right  and  wrong  of  their 
lives,  "  and  their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing 
or  else  excusing  one  another,"  as  well  as  themselves, 
Rom.  ii.  14,  15 


132  THE    DELIVERY    AND  [SER.  III. 

The  moral  law,  therefore,  whether  as  delivered  to 
Israel  at  Sinai,  or  as  contained  in  the  book  of  the 
covenant  written  for  the  immediate  use  of  that  peo- 
ple, or  as  it  is  variously  incorporated  with  the  whole 
of  the  inspired  volume,  is,  strictly  taken,  nothing 
but  a  verbal  copy  of  the  law  of  nature,  which  God 
concreated  with  man.  Wherefore,  the  standard  by 
which  the  heathen,  as  such,  shall  be  judged,  is  es- 
sentially the  same  with  that  by  which  the  Jews  and 
all  others  favored  with  the  Scriptures,  shall  be 
judged  ;  "for  as  many  as  have  sinned  without  law," 
that  is,  without  the  written  law,  and  dying  impeni- 
tent, "  shall  also  perish  without  (that)  law  ;  and  as 
many  as  have  sinned  in  the  law,  shall  be  judged  by 
the  law."  Rom.  ii.  12.  Yet  with  this  difference  in 
the  sentence  ;  the  latter,  and  especially  those  under 
the  New  Testament,  having  had  the  standard  of  trial 
more  clearly  revealed  to  them,  and  so  having  sinned 
against  more  light  and  knowledge,  will  (if  not  brought 
to  repentance,  and  pardoned  through  Christ,)  in  the 
strictest  justice,  as  the  greater  sinners,  receive  the 
greater  punishment.11  Not,  however,  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  their  having  these  sacred  writings, 
which  to  have,  is,  in  itself,  a  great  blessing  ;  but  as  a 
merited  consequence  of  their  presumptuous  trans- 
gressions of  the  law  thus  clearly  revealed — their  stu- 
pid insensibility  to  the  providential  goodness  and  long 
forbearance  of  God  manifested  toward  them — their 
impious  disregard  of  all  his  threatenings  and  warn- 
ings so  plainly  made  known  to  them — and  their  wil- 
ful contempt  of  his  Son  and  disbelief  of  the  record 
which  he  has  given  concerning  him.  * 

This  law,  then,  either  as  written  or  unwritten,  is 

h  John  xix.  11.  Matt.  x.  15.  '  Rom.  ii.5 — 9.  John  iii.  19.  and 
1  John  v.  10. 


[SER.  III.  AUTHORITY    OF    THE    LAW.  135 

the  universal  standard  of  trial ;  and  every  son  and 
daughter  of  Adam,  tried  by  it,  whether  as  it  is  con- 
tained in  their  nature,  or  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  Bible, 
is  found  wanting — wanting  both  in  holiness  of  heart 
and  rectitude  of  life.  Upon  law  ground,  therefore, 
every  mouth  must  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  be- 
come guilty  before  God.  Rom.  iii.  19.  Hence 

Thirdly,  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  this  law 
of  God — "  from  his  right  hand  went  a  fiery  law."  By 
thus  characterizing  this  law,  Moses  might  only  design 
to  commemorate  the  terrible  manner  of  its  delivery* 
Preparatory  thereto,  "  The  LORD  descended  upon 
mount  Sinai  in  fire,  and  in  the  actual  promulgation 
of  it,  his  voice  was  heard  speaking  out  of  the  midst 
of  fire.  k  But  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  prophet,  by  giv- 
ing the  fearful  epithet  fiery  to  this  law,  doubtless 
designed  more — namely,  to  imply  some  of  its  dis- 
tinguishing properties  and  principal  uses.  The  per- 
tinence of  the  epithet  to  this  design,  may  easily  be 
seen  in  the  following  instances. 

Fire  is  a  common  emblem  of  purity,  and  therefore 

a  fit  emblem  of  this  law,  which  is  a  mere  blaze  of 

moral  purity  ;  "  the  commandment  of  the  LORD  is 

pure,1  and  in   it,  God  is  revealed  as  a  consuming 

fire  to  impenitent  transgressors."1 

Like  fire,  this  law  gives  light ;  not  sight,  but  light 
to  those  who  have  sight.  What  is  said  of  its  entrance 
at  mount  Sinai,  m'ay  justly  be  said  of  its  entrance 
into  the  conscience  of  a  regenerate  sinner  :  "  The  law 
entered  that  the  offence  might  abound,"  not  that  it 
might  become  more  abundant,  but  that  it  might  the 

*  Deut.  iv.  12,  13.  !  Psal.  xix.  8.  comp.  Rom.  vii.  12.  m  Deut. 
iv.  24. 


134  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

i 

more  abundantly  and  clearly  appear.0     Thus  it  is, 
that  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin.  ° 

Like^/m?,  this  law  gives  distress  and  creates  alarm. 
Such  were  its  effects  upon  the  Israelites,  when  it 
was  delivered  to  them  from  Sinai p  ;  and  its  tenden- 
cy is  the  same  in  the  conscience  of  every  awakened 
sinner :  the  law  worketh  wrath,  that  is,  threatens  wrath, 
and  fills  the  sinner  with  apprehensions  of  it.q 

As  fire  is  useful  or  hurtful,  according  as  it  is  right- 
ly or  wrongly  employed  ;  so  is  this  law.  The  law  is 
good  if  a  man  use  it  lawfully* — to  show  his  fallen 
and  helpless  condition,  and  as  a  rule  of  moral  duty; 
but,  if  he  rely  on  it,  that  is,  on  his  obedience  to  it, 
for  life,  it  must  inevitably  prove  his  death,  his  ever- 
lasting ruin  ;  for  as  many  as  are  of  the  works  of  the 
law  are  under  the  curse,  &/c.s  and  the  command- 
ment, the  law,  which,  had  human  nature  remain- 
ed in  conformity  to  it,  was  ordained  to  life,  such 
life  as  Adam  enjoyed  in  paradise,  is  found,  as 
a  violated  covenant,  to  be  unto  death  legal  and  moral, 
temporal  and  eternal.  So  every  regenerate  sinner 
finds  it  to  be,  when  under  conviction  by  it;1  and  so 
must  every  finally  impenitent  sinner  find  it,  when 
sinking  under  its  sentence  to  that  death  which  is 
the  wages  of  sin,  yand  which,  as  it  is  opposed  to  eter- 
nal life,  can  be  none  other  than  eternal  death. u 

From  our  subject,  we  infer 

1.  That  fallen  mankind  are  not,  as  many  suppose 
them  to  be,  in  a  state  of  probation,  that  is,  on  trial, 
whether  they  will  secure  their  salvation  or  not.  If  so, 
it  must  be  with  reference  either  to  the  law  or  to  the 

nRom.  v.20.  °  Ibid.  iii.  20.  P  Exo.  xix.  16.  xx.  18  and  Heb.  xii. 
19,20.  9  Rom.  iv.  15.  r  1  Tim.  i.  8.  s  Gal.  iii.  10.  tRom.vii.  10. 
«  Ibid.  vi.  23. 


SER   III.]  AUUHORITY   OF   THE    LAW.  135 

gospel.  Not,  surely,  with  reference  to  the  law ;  for 
by  this,  whether  considered  as  innate  or  as  revealed, 
they  are  all  condemned  already.™  And  to  suppose 
them  in  a  state  of  probation  with  reference  to  the 
gospel,  is  to  suppose  that  salvation  by  Christ  is  at 
their  own  option,  and  dependent  on  their  own  exer- 
tions ;  whereas,  "  it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor 
of  him  that  runneth  ;  but  of  God  that  showeth  mer- 
cy ."x  Nay,  Christ  himself  hath  said,  "  No  man  can 
come  to  me,  except  the  Father  who  hath  sent  me 
draw  him."y 

2.  That  none  can  escape  the  penalty  annexed  to 
the  violation  of  the  covenant  of  works,  in  the  guilt 
of  which  all  are  involved,  but  by  an  act  of  God's 
mere  grace ;  and  as  such  act  can  never  pass  but 
in  harmony  with  divine  justice,    it   is  impossible  it 
should  pass  in  favor  of  any,  but  in  consideration  of 
the  satisfaction  made  to  divine  justice  by  Christ ; 
who,  for  all  he  represented  in  his    obedience  and 
death,    "  magnified  the  law   and  made  it  honora- 
ble," and  '•  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself."2 
And  accordingly,  although  all  whom  God  justifies, 
are  justified  freely  by  his  grace;  yet,  with  reference 
to  law  and  justice,  they  are  justified  through  the  re- 
demption that  is  in  Christ  Jesus* 

3.  That  the  unregenerate  can  have  no  communion 
with  God,  nor  render  any  acceptable  worship   to 
him. 

They  can  have  no  communion  with  God.  Com- 
munion implies  agreement ;  but  there  can  be  no 
agreement  between  God  and  unregenerate  sinners. 

w  John  iii.  .18,  *  Rom.  ix.  16.  y  John  vi.  44.  z  Isa.  xlii.  21. 
Heb.  ix.  26.  a  Rom  iii.  24—26. 


136  THE    DELIVERY   AND  [SER.  III. 

He  is  the  living  God,  but  they  are  dead  in  trespass- 
es  and  sins ; b  he  is  LIGHT,  but  they  are  darkness  ;c 
he  is  holy,  but  they  are  filthy?  he  is  LOVE,  but 
they  are  enmity ; e  unless,  therefore,  there  can  be 
communion  between  life  and  death — light  and  dark- 
ness— holiness  and  wickedness — love  and  enmity, 
there  can  be  no  communion  between  God  and  unre- 
generate  sinners  ;  there  being  nothing  in  either  that 
can  hold  communion  with  the  other.  And  as  there 
can  be  no  communion  between  God  and  unregene- 
rate  sinners  in  time,  so,  by  consequence,  not  in  eter- 
nity. God,  we  are  assured  by  revelation  as  well  as 
reason,  changeth  not : — and  though  death  makes  a 
great  change  in  the  condition  of  sinners — removing 
them  from  time  to  eternity — from  the  society  of  men 
to  the  society  of  devils — from  temporal  comforts,  to 
hell-torments,  and  from  the  prospects  of  cheering 
hope,  to  the  horrors  of  black  despair — it,  neverthe- 
less, makes  no  change  in  their  moral  character ;  their 
carnal  mind  remains,  and  will  for  ever  remain,  enmi- 
ty against  God.  Rom.  viii.  7.  Nay  more :  While 
here,  the  events  of  Providence  and  the  example  and 
admonition  of  the  godly — yea,  their  own  respect  for 
society — their  desire  ^  of  "  that  honor  which  cometh 
from  men" — their  regard  to  worldly  interest,  and 
even  their  vague  hopes  of  divine  mercy,  all  unite 
so  to  restrain  their  corruptions,  that  the  turpitude  of 
their  satanic  disposition  is  not  fully  developed ;  John 
viii.  44.  Eph.  ii.  2,  3. ;  but  all  these  means  of  restraint 
ceasing  in  death,  their  disembodied  souls  thereupon 
become,  like  fallen  angels,  utterly  hopeless,  and 

b  Josh,  iii.  10.     Eph.  ii.  1.    c  1  John  i.  5.     Eph.-  v.  8.     d  PsaL 
xcix.  9.  and  liii.  3.     e  1  John  iv.  8.     Rom.  viii.  7. 


SER  III.]  AUTHORITY   OF   THE    LAW.  137 

therefore  infernally  rageful.  "  They  that  go  down 
to  the  pit,  cannot  hope  &c."  Is.  xxxviii.  18.  "  There 
their  worm"  of  a  guilty  conscience  "  dieth  not,  and 
the  fire"  of  divine  wrath,  preying  upon  them,  "  is  not 
quenched."  Mark  ix.  43 — 48. 

Nor  can  the  unregenerate  render  any  acceptable 
worship  to  God. — "  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that 
worship  him,  must  worship  him  in  Spirit  and  in 
truth ;"  John  iv.  24 ;  but  of  such  worship  the  unre- 
generate  are  incapable.  They  may  present  their 
bodies  in  his  house  and  at  his  throne  ;  but  their  souls 
are  dead  in  sin  and  their  hearts  are  far  from  him.  Is. 
xxix.  13.  Ezek.  xxxiii.  30 — 32.  Again;  to  worship 
God  acceptably,  we  must  have  that  faith  which  re- 
nounces all  self-confidence,  and  looks  alone  to  Christ 
for  the  acceptance  of  our  persons  and  services.  But 
this  faith  is  not  in  the  unregenerate.  It  is  not  a  fruit 
of  nature,  but  of  the  Spirit ;  Gal.  v.  22  ;  and  conse- 
quently is  in  none  but  those  who  are  the  temples  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  1  Cor.  vi.  19.  None  therefore  but  the  re- 
generate can  say,  with  John,  "  Our  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father,  and  with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ ;  1  John  i. 
3:  or,  with  Paul,  "We  are  the  circumcision,  who 
worship  God  in  the  Spirit,  and  rejoice  in  Christ 
Jesus,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh."  Philip, 
iii.  3.  Let  none  marvel,  then,  that  Christ  hath  said, 
"Ye  must  be  born  again."  John  iii.  7. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  nothing  in  our  subject,  nor 
in  any  part  of  God's  word,  that  is  in  the  least  calcu- 
lated to  discourage  any  sensible  sinner  from  looking 
to  Christ  for  salvation,  nor  any  true  believer  in  him, 
from  drawing  near  to  God  in  acts  of  worship.  To 
the  former,  Christ  is  saying  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 

18 


138  THE    DELIVERY,    &C.  [SER.  IIT. 

rest;"  Matt.  xi.  28;  and  the  latter,  however  con- 
scious of  their  own  unworthiness  and  of  the  imper- 
fection of  their  worship,  are  divinely  assured,  that, 
in  the  exercise  of  their  graces  and  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  their  prayers  and  praises,  they  "  offer  up 
spiritual  sacrifices  acceptable  to  God  by  Jesus 
Christ."  1  Pet.  ii.  5. 


SERMON    IV. 

THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    MANIFESTED 
TO    ISRAEL. 


DEUT.  xxxiii.  3. —  Yea,  he  loved  the  people :  all  his  saints  are 
in  thy  hand:  and  they  sat  down  at  thy  feet ;  every  one  shall  re- 
ceive of  thy  words. 


AWARE  of  the  acceptance  which  Dr.  Kennicott's 
emendations  of  the  Hebrew  text,  in  the  second, 
third,  fourth  and  fifth  verses  of  this  chapter,  have 
obtained  with  some  learned  men,  I  carefully  exam- 
ined them  and  the  arguments  by  which  they  are  sup- 
ported ;*  but,  (persuaded  that  commentators,  and  es- 
pecially preachers,  should  be  sacredly  scrupulous 
about  departing,  in  any  instance,  from  the  standard 
original  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,)  I  have  not  ventured 
to  follow  them ;  lest  I  should  thereby  give  the  ark 
an  unhallowed  touch.  So  far,  indeed,  as  the  Dr's 
emendations  relate  to  the  verse  now  before  us,  I  was, 
at  first  sight,  inclined  to  adopt  them ;  but,  on  ma- 
ture deliberation,  the  very  reasons  which  had  pro- 
duced that  inclination,  produced  a  contrary  decision ; 
namely,  his  substituting  "pa  barach,  he  blessed,  for  TT:J 
beyadecha,  in  thy  hand,  and  affixing  the  pronouns 
of  the  third  person  for  those  of  the  second,  in  the 

*  See  his  first  Dissertation,  jx  422  <fce. 


140  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD  [SER.  IV. 

subsequent  clauses — thereby  making  these  members 
of  the  text  to  read  thus  :  And  he  blessed  all  his  saints ; 
for  they  fell  down  at  his  feet,  and  they  received  of 
his  words. 

The  object,  no  doubt,  of  these  emendations,  was 
to  remove  from  the  text  what,  in  the  standard  Hebrew 
copy,  appeared  to  the  learned  emendator  abrupt  and 
ungramniatical.  But  might  not  his  apprehension  of 
such  faults  in  this  part  of  that  standard,  have  been 
occasioned  by  an  oversight  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  words  are  introduced,  and  of  one  important  fact 
which  they  were  designed  to  recognize  1  The  words, 
though  most  happily  adapted  to  the  subject  treated 
of,  were  not  uttered  in  literal  construction  with  the 
context,  but  by  way  of  admirative  exclamation. 
Whelmed  in  admiration  of  God's  marvelous  and  dis- 
tinguishing goodness  manifested  to  Israel,  the  pro- 
phet exclaimed  D^  nr\  *\x  aph  chobeb  ammim,  Yea, 
or  rather,  Surely  he  loved  the  people ;  and,  specially 
affected  with  that  evidence  of  it  which  God  had  given 
in  committing  them  to  the  never-failing  protection 
and  guidance  of  the  iricreated  Angel — the  Angel  in 
whom  his  name  is, — in  whom  his  nature  and  perfec- 
tions dwell ; a — specially  affected;  I  say,  with  this 
evidence  of  God's  love  to  Israel  and  of  the  Angel's 
constant  care  of  them,b  and  probably  enjoying,  at  the 
time,  much  communion  with  God  through  this  Angel 
of  his  presence,  Moses  gratefully  acknowledges  all ; 
for,  not  by  any  rudeness  of  speech  or  violation  of 
grammar,  but,  as  I  understand  him,  by  an  elegant 
apostrophe,  and  as  moved  thereto  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
he  directs  his  address  to  this  divine  Angel,  say- 
ing of  God's  Israel,  "All  his  saints  are  in  THY 
*  Exo.  xxiii.  21.  Col.  ii.  9.  b  Exo.  xiv.  19.  xxiii.  20,  21. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO   ISRAEL.  141 

hand — they  sat  down  at  THY  feet,  every  one  of  them 
shall  receive  of  THY  words.* 

This  change,  therefore,  of  the  pronoun  from  the 
third  to  the  second  person,  is  not  an  instance  of  "  ver- 
bal confusion,"  but  a  special  evidence  of  divine  in- 
spiration ;  the  Holy  Ghost  thus  leading  the  prophet 
to  recognize  the  important  fact,  that  God,  in  order 
to  render  the  Israelites  the  more  evidently  and  emi- 
nently a  type  of  his  elect,  had  committed  them  to 
the  providential  hand  of  his  divine  Son.  And  the 
passage,  so  understood,  instead  of  being  "  obscure 
and  equivocal,"  is  one  of  the  most  perspicuous  illus- 
trations of  God's  favor  to  his  Israel,  both  national 
and  spiritual. 

In  conformity,  then,  to  this  view  of  the  disputed 
address,  I  shall  consider  the  several  members  of  the 
text  in  .their  natural  succession ;  with  reference, 

*  This  interpretation  of  the  address  in  question,  though  confes- 
sedly original,  is  no  vain  conceit.  It  is  amply  supported — by  the 
Mosaic  history ;  see  the  places  just  referred  to,  and  Deut.  xxxii. 
"9 — 12 ; — by  the  writings  of  the  prophets ;  See  Psal.  Ix.  4.  5.  Ixxx. 
17, 18  ;  and  Is,  Ixiii.  9  ; — and  by  the  testimony  of  "  Stephen,  a  man 
full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  See  Acts  vii.  30,  35  and  38. 
Nor  is  this  the  only  passage  of  scripture  in  which  we  find  a  pro- 
noun of  the  2d.  or  3rd.  person,  used  without  an  antecedent.  Da- 
vid,  rapt  in  holy  meditation  on  God's  foundation,  laid  in  Zion, 
with  a  similar  abruptness,  begins  the  Ixxxvii.  Psalm — "  His  foun- 
dation is  in  the  holy  mountains."  In  like  manner  the  church,  ar- 
dently desiring  some  new  manifestations  of  the  love  of  Christ, 
without  naming  him,  exclaims,  "  Let  him  kiss  me  with  the  kisses 
of  his  mouth:  for"  (then  directing  her  address  to  him)  "  THY  love 
is  better  than  wine."  Cant.  i.  2.  And  Mary,  absorpt  in  thought 
about  her  blessed  Lord,  and  intensely  solicitous  to  find  his  sacred 
body,  said  (as  she  supposed  to  the  gardener,)  "  Sir,  if  thou  have 
borne  HIM  hence,  tell  me  where  thou  hast  laid  HIM,  and  I  will 
take  HIM  away."  John  xx.  15. 


142  THE    LOVE    OF   GOD  [SER.  IV. 

I.  To  national,  and 

II.  To  spiritual  Israel. 

I.  With  reference  to  national  Israel.     Admiring 
the  divine  favor  to  that  nation,  Moses 

1.  Declares  the  moving  cause  of  it,  namely  God's 
love  set  upon  them ; —  Yea,  or  Surely  he  loved  the 
people.     By  this  declaration,  the  prophet  manifestly 
designed  to  account  for  the  manner  in  which  God 
by  his  word  and  providence  had  distinguished  that 
people.     That  the  reason  of  their  being  so  distin- 
guished was  not  in  themselves,  he  had  assured  them 
before  ;d  and,  that  they  were  no  better  in  nature,  and, 
when  left  to  themselves,  no  better  in  practice  than 
other  nations,  is  evident  from  the  whole  tenor  of 
their  history.    Nevertheless,  that  they  so  enjoyed  the 
divine  protection  and  patronage  as  no  other  nation 
did,  was  so  obvious  that  even  their  enemies  confess- 
ed it. e     The  reason,  therefore,  of  all  God's  acts  of 
kindness  towards  them,  must  have  existed  in  him- 
self— he  must  have  been  self-moved  to  do  them  good 
— he  must  have  loved  them  with  a  love  which,  in  its 
kind,  was  absolute  and  discriminating ; — Surely  he 
loved  the  people — not  as  an  acknowledgement  of  any 
-excellence  in  them  or  in  their  doings,  but  as  an  ex- 
pression of  his  own  sovereign  good-will ; — he  loved 
the  people  because  he  would  love  them — and  so  lov- 
ing them,  he  had  distinguished  and  would  distin- 
guish them. 

We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  while  God 
found  no  reason  in  the  Israelitish  nation,  why  he 
should  favor  them  above  other  nations,  he,  neverthe- 
less, in  all  the  expressions  of  his  kindness  to  that 

d  Deut.  ix.  5,  6.     e  Ibid,  xxxii.  31  and  Psal.  cxxvi.  2. 
\ 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED   TO   ISRAEL.  143 

people,  had  respect  to  their  fathers,  Abraham,  Isaac 
and  Jacob,  and  to  his  covenant  antecedently  made 
with  those  fathers  concerning  their  posterity/ 

In  those  eminent  patriarchs,  God  chose  the  nation 
that  should  descend  from  them,  to  be  a  peculiar  peo- 
ple unto  himself;  "  The  Lord,"  said  Moses  to  Israel, 
"  had  delight  in  thy  fathers  to  love  them,  and  he  chose 
their  seed  after  them  ;  even  you,  above  all  people,  as 
it  is  this  day."g 

In  their  fathers  also  he  blessed  them :  for  all  his 
promises  respecting  their  increase  and  their  inher- 
itance, were  originally  made  to  those  patriarchs. h 

Accordingly,  God's  deliverance  of  them  out  of 
Egypt,  though  an  evidence  of  his  love  to  them,  was  in 
compliance  with  his  antecedent  asseveration  made  to 
their  famous  ancestors :  "  Because  the  Lord  loved 
you,"  said  Moses  to  them,  "  and  because  he  would 
keep  the  oath  which  he  had  sworn  unto  your  fathers,* 
hath  the  Lord  brought  you  out  with  a  mighty  hand, 
and  redeemed  you  out  of  the  house  of  bondmen,  from 
the  hand  of  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt."  k 

Moses,  continuing  his  admiration  of  the  divine 
favor  to  Israel, 

2.  Recognizes  that  eminent  instance  of  it,  which 
God  had  given  in  committing  them  to  the  hand  of  the 
divine  Angel  here  addressed  :  all  his  saints,  all  God's 
Israel,  (O  Angel  of  the  covenant)  are  in  thy  hand. 
The  angel  supposed  to  be  here  addressed,  we  call 
divine,  not  as  Arians  and  Socinians  admit  him  to  be 
such,  that  is,  merely  by  virtue  of  a  divine  call  and 

f  Gen.  xxii.  16,  17.  xxvi.  3,  4.  Exo.  ii.  24.  Lev.  xxvi.  42. 
1  Chron.  xvi.  16,  17.  g  Deut.  x.  15.  h  Gen.  xvii.  7, 8.  xxvi.  3—5. 
and  xxviii.  13,  14.  *  Exo.  xxxii.  13.  Psal.  cv.  8—10.  k  Deut. 

vii.  8. 


144  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD  [SER.  IV. 

delegation  to  office  ;  but  because,  upon  revealed  au- 
thority, we  confidently  believe  him  to  be  such  by 
nature.  "  My  name,"  said  God  the  Father,  "  is  in 
him ;"  and  by  which,  as  noticed  in  the  introduction, 
he  could  mean  nothing  less  than  that  he  possesses 
the  same  divine  nature  and  perfections,  which  are 
possessed  by  the  Father  himself. l  Besides,  it  is 
manifest  that  this  Angel,  who,  in  Exo.  xiv.  19, 
is  called  the  Angel  of  God,  is  the  same  person  who, 
in  the  original  of  Chapter  xxiii.  21,  is  called  JEHO- 
VAH, a  name  which,  from  rrn  or  mn  to  be,  denotes 
essential  Being — Being  underived,  independent  and 
eternal ;  and  which,  therefore,  is  a  name  applicable 
to  no  nature  but  the  divine. m  Moreover,  the  same 
person  whom  the  Israelites  tempted  at  Massah  and 
when  compassing  the  land  of  Edom,  and  whom  Mo- 
ses, in  Num.  xxi.  5.  calls  God,  and,  in  Exo.  xvii.  2.  7. 
JEHOVAH  ;  and  of  whom  in  Deut.  vi.  16,  he  said  to 
Israel,  JEHOVAH  your  God,  the  apostle  Paul,in  ICor. 
x.  9,  expressly  calls  CHRIST.  Well,  therefore,  might 
Moses  rejoice  that  the  people  who  lay  so  near  his 
heart,  and  to  whom  he  himself  belonged,  wrere  in  the 
hand  of  this  Angel,  this  Holy  One  of  Israel,  who 
possessed  all  divine  perfections  to  preserve  and  di- 
rect them. 

We  must  not  dismiss  this  article,  however,  with- 
out endeavoring  to  settle  two  points. — 1.  In  what 
sense  the  Israelites  are  here  called  saints.  No  doubt 
many  of  them,  including  Moses,  were  saints  by  in- 
ternal sanctification.  But  that  all  of  them  were  such, 
their  general  character  forbids  us  to  believe,  On  the 

lExod.  xxiii.  20—23.  John  x.  30,  and  Col.  ii.  9.  »Psal. 
Ixxxiii.  18. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO    ISRAEL.  145 

contrary,  what  Paul  said  of  that  nation,  long  after- 
wards, Moses,  with  equal  truth,  might  have  said  of 
them  in  his  day :  They  arc  not  all  Israel,  who  are 
of  Israel ;  that  is,  they  are  not  all  spiritual  Israel- 
ites, who  are  the  natural  descendants  of  Jacob.u 
Wherefore  the  appellation  of  saints,  as  it  is  here  and 
elsewhere  given  to  the  nation  of^ Israel  in  common, 
is  not  to  be  understood  with  respect  to  internal  sanc- 
tification  at  all ;  but  merely  with  respect  to  their 
separation,  in  the  counsel  and  by  the  providence  of 
God,  from  all  other  nations,  and  to  the  obligation  of 
that  peculiar  covenant,  which  they,  as  a  nation,  were 
brought  under,  to  acknowledge  and  worship  the  true 
God,  to  the  rejection  of  heathen  idols ;  and  to  which 
they  had  solemnly  assented.0  And — 2.  How,  as  a 
nation,  they  were  in  the  hand  of  Christ.  To  sup- 
pose, that  as  a  divine  person  simply  considered,  He 
had  them  in  his  hand,  would  be  to  suppose  of  them 
only  what  is  true  of  all  nations,  yea,  of  all  creatures ; 
for  the  divine  nature,  in  Christ,  as  in  the  Father  and 
in  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for 
ever.p  In  his  official  capacity,  therefore,  Christ  must 
have  had  them  in  his  hand.  This  indeed  is  implied 
in  the  words  ;  by  which  it  is  evident  that  they  were 
in  his  hand  by  an  act  of  God  the  Father,  whose  they 
were  :  all  his  saints,  said  Moses  to  Christ,  are  in  thy 
hand.  Christ,  however,  in  his  official  capacity  sus- 
tains a  twofold  character:  He  is  the  Mediator  of 
the  covenant  of  grace, q  and  the  Administrator  of 
divine  Providence/  As  the  Mediator  of  the  cove- 
nant of  grace,  He  is  able  to  save  them  to  the  utter- 

nRom.  ix.  6.  Comp.  Chap.  ii.  28.  °Exo.  xix.  5—8.  xxiv.  3,  7. 
Deut.  v.  27, 28.  vii.  6.  P  Rom.  ix.  5.  q  Heb.  viii.  6.  r  Psal  Ixxv. 
2,  3.  Is.  ix.  3—6.  Micah  iv.  3,  11,  12,  13. 

19 


146  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD  [SER  IV. 

most  that  come  unto  God  by  him ; s  and,  as  the  Ad- 
ministrator of  divine  Providence,  he  says,  All  power 
is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.*  Now, 
that  the  Jewish  nation,  as  such,  was  not  in  his  hand 
as  he  is  the  Mediator  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  is 
manifest;  for  if  so,  all  the  individuals  of  it  must 
have  received  that  grace  from  him  which  would  have 
brought  them  to  God  by  him  ;u  whereas,  in  every  gene- 
ration, multitudes  of  them  have  utterly  denied  and  re- 
jected  him,  and  have  sought  to  come  to  God  "  by  the 
works  of  the  law ; w  and  consequently  (dreadful  to 
think)  must,  according  to  his  threatening,  have  died 
in  their  sins.x  Nevertheless,  they  were  in  his  hand 
as  he  is  the  Administrator  of  divine  Providence ;  and 
that,  not  merely  as  the  Father  hath  given  him  pow- 
er over  all  flesh, y  but  as  he  confided  to  him,  the  ad- 
ministration of  that  special  Providence  which  he  had 
purposed  to  observe,  in  relation  to  that  peculiar  peo- 
ple. Nor  did  God's  promise  of  the  Angel's  presence 
with  them  imply  any  thing  more :  "  Behold,"  said  he, 
"  I  send  an  Angel  before  thee  to  keep  thee  in  the  way, 
and  to  bring  thee  into  the  place  which  I  have  pre- 
pared."2 Being  thus  in  the  official  hand  of  Christ, 
they  were  required  to  obey  and  revere  him  :  "  Beware 
of  him,"  said  God  to  them,  "  and  obey  his  voice ; 
provoke  him  not,  for  he  will  not  pardon  your  trans- 
gressions ;"  that  is,  he  would  not  wink  at  or  excuse 
their  rebelion,  any  more  than  the  Father  who  sent 
him  would.  Here  let  it  be  recollected,  that  if  the 
person  spoken  of  had  been  a  mere  creature,  human 
or  angelic,  JEHOVAH  would  not  have  said  he  will  not, 

8  Heb.  vii.  25.  l  Matt,  xxviii.  18.  u  Psal.  ex.  3.  John  vi.  37 — 
39.  w  Rom.  ix.  31— 33.x.  3.  x  John  viii.  21—24.  ylbid.  xvii. 
2.  z  Exo.  xxiii.  20. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO   ISRAEL.  147 

but   he  cannot  pardon  your  transgressions;    and 
much  less,  to  account  for  the  assertion,  would  he 
have  added,  for  my  name  is  in  him ; a  whose  name  we 
are  assured  consists  of  his  perfections,  and  is  the  de- 
fense of  his  people. b  Accordingly,  Moses  precedes — 
3.  To  recognize  the  subjection  of  Israel  to  this 
Angel :    they  sat  down   at  thy  feet.      The   word 
isn  tucchu,  here  rendered  they  sat  down,  occurring 
nowhere  else  but  in  Is.  i.  5,  where  it  evidently  means 
stricken  or  smitten,  has  occasioned  some  diversity  of 
opinion  respecting  the  reference  and  meaning  of  this 
sentence.     Dr.  Kennicott,  understanding  it  with  ref- 
erence to  the  position  of  the  Israelites  when  they 
received  the  law,  took  the  word  in  its  latter  mean- 
ing, and  rendered  it — they  fell  down,  struck  pros- 
trate, as  it  should  seem  he  supposed  they  were,  at 
seeing  the  Majesty  and  hearing  the  voice  of  the  di- 
vine Law-giver.     But  this  makes  the  recognition  to 
contradict  the  history;  for  although  Moses,  by  di- 
vine order  "brought   forth  the   people  out  of  the 
camp  to  meet  with  God"  at  Sinai,  he  does  not  say 
that  they  fell  down,  nor  even,  as  in  our  text,  that 
they  sat  down,  but,  "  that  they  stood  at  the  nether 
part   of  the   mount."0     Wherefore,   I   understand 
Moses,  in  the  text,  as  recognizing  the  position  of 
the  Israelites,  not  at  the  foot  of  the  mount,  but  at 
the  foot  of  the  cloud ;  by  which  and  from  which  they 
received  all  their  journeying  directions.     And  so  un- 
derstood, the  recognition  exactly  corresponds  to  the 
history.     For,  as  all  their  removes  and  courses  were 
governed  by  the  removes  and  courses  of  the  cloud ; 
so  where  the  cloud  rested,  they  sat  down,  that  is, 

*Exo.  xxiii.  21.     blbid.  xxxiv.  6.  Pfeal.  xx.  1.     c  Exo.  xix.  17. 


148  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD  [SER.    IV. 

pitched  their  tents  and  remained  stationary,  till  it 
again  removed ;  and  as  the  cloud  stood  over  them, 
they  (figuratively  speaking)  sat  at  the  feet  of  the 
divine  Angel,  who  dwelt  in  it. d  Nor  did  they  merely 
sit  down  at  his  feet ;  they  also  received  their  orders 
from  him.  Hence, 

4.  Moses  said  to  him  ymais  *&*  yissa  middabbero- 
theycha,  he,  or  every  one  shall  receive  of  thy  words. 
But,  instead  of  xir  yissa,  he  or  every  one  shall  receive, 
Dr.  Kennicott  reads  iKtsr  .yisseu,  they  shall  receive; 
and  which,  as  it  best  agrees  with  the  context,  bids 
fair  to  be  the  true  reading  ;  though  we  cannot  admit 
his  change  of  the  pronoun  affixed  to  the  following 
word,  from  the  second  to  the  third  person,  because 
it  does  not  agree  with  the  context  in  the  standard 
copy. 

In  the  preceding  sentence,  Moses  gratefully  ac- 
knowledged the  divine  influence  which  the  Israelites, 
prone  as  they  were  to  rebel,  had  been  mercifully  un- 
der, during  the  times  to  which  he  referred.  Sub- 
missive to  the  Angel,  they  had  come  out  of  Egypt — 
and,  observant  of  the  cloud  in  which  the  Angel  resi- 
ded, they  had  alternately  journeyed  and  rested,  till, 
thus  conducted,  they  had  reached  the  borders  of  the 
promised  land :  and  in  this  sentence,  moved  by  the 
Spirit  of  prophecy,  he  foretold  their  subjection  to  the 
same  infallible  Guide  for  the  time  to  come :  they 
shall  receive  of  thy  words. 

Those  who  understand  the  preceding  sentence  to 
respect  the  position  of  the  Israelites  when  they  re- 
ceived the  law,  understand  this  prediction  to  have 
been  fulfilled  in  them,  when  they  received  the  words 

dNum.  ix.    15—23. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO    ISRAEL.  149 

of  the  law,  as  recapitulated  to  them  by  Joshua,  who 
succeded  Moses,  as  the  visible  representative  and 
type  of  CHRIST.  e     To  me,  however,  it  seems  much 
more  probable,  because  much   more  agreeable  to 
what  had  preceded,  that  this  prediction  respected  the 
directions  which  the  Israelites,  under  Joshua,  should 
receive  from  Christ,  by  means  of  the  ark.f    For  as 
the  cloud,  during  the  ministry  of  Moses,  so  the  ark, 
ever  afterward,  was  the  instituted  symbol  of  Christ's 
presence  with  national  Israel.     Thus  understood,  a 
typical  harmony  also  is  preserved.     For,  as  Moses 
died  and  the  cloud  disappeared,  preparatory  to  the 
ushering  in  of  Joshua  and  the  directive  use  of  the 
ark,  in  which  the  tables  of  the  law  were  deposited ; 
so  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  of  which  the  cloud  might 
be  an  emblem,  was  abolished  in  Christ,  the  antitype 
of  Joshua ; g  and  the  use  of  the  ark,  an  emblem  of 
Christ,  in  whom  the  law  is  kept  inviolate,  ceased  be- 
fore the  commencement  of  the  gospel  dispensation 
and  its  ordinances,  in  which  he  is  more  evidently  set 
forth,  as  the  fulfilling  end  of  the  law  for  righteous- 
ness to  everyone  thatbelieveth.*     And  as,  not  under 
Moses  but  under  Joshua,  Israel  was  brought  into 
the    promised  land;   so,  not  through  the  law  but 
through  Christ,   the    Church   is   brought   into  her 
promised  inheritance,  both  of  grace  here,  and  of 
glory  hereafter/     Thus,  while  types  and  symbols 
have  been  successively  varied,  the  substance  under 
all   dispensations   has   remained  the    same ;   Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  for  ever.* 

The  literal  interpretation  which  I  have  given  of 
the  text,  happily  coincides  with  the  Targum  of  On- 

eJosh.  viii.  34,  35.     fJosh.  iii.  3.   iv.    11.     g2  Cor.  iii.    13. 
h  Rom.  x.  4.  Gal.  iii.  1.     *  John  i.  16.   Rom.  vi.  23.     k  Heb.  xiii.  8. 


150  THE   LOVE   OP  GOD  [SER.  IV. 

kelos,  which  the  learned,  both  Jews  and  Christians, 
have  constantly  regarded  as  the  best  Chaldee  version 
and  paraphrase  of  the  Pentateuch;  and  which,  on 
our  text,  runs  thus :  Surely  he  loved  the  tribes,  all 
his  holy  ones  of  the  house  of  Israel :  in  his  might  he 
led  them  out  of  Egypt:  and  they  were  conducted 
under  thy  cloud;  and  went  forward  at  thy  com- 
mand.* I  procede  to  consider  the  words, 

II.  With  reference  to  spiritual  Israel.  That  God, 
by  his  favor  manifested  to  national  Israel,  designed  to 
illustrate  his  richer  favor  toward  a  people  of  whom  that 
nation  was  but  a  type,  is,  among  Christians,  univer- 
sally admitted.  And  this  people,  most  comprehen- 
sively taken,  I  understand  to  be  all  the  elect  of  every 
nation  and  of  every  generation,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  world.  These,  consisting  partly 
of  Jews  and  partly  of  Gentiles,  constitute  that 
Israel  who  shall  be  saved  in  the  Lord,  the  Lord 
Jesus,  with  an  everlasting  salvation,  and  who  shall 
not  be  ashamed  nor  confounded,  world  without 
end. l 

How  aptly  the  favor  by  which  God  distinguished 
national  Israel,  serves  to  illustrate  that  greater  favor 
by  which  he  has  distinguished  and  will  for  ever  distin- 
guish the  people  of  whom  that  nation  was  a  type,  may 
be  seen, 

1.  In  the  source  of  it;  and  which  is  here  declared 
to  be  LOVE  :  Surely  he  loved  the  people,  the  people 
of  national  Israel.  In  his  love  of  them,  and  his  love 
of  their  antitype,  there  is  an  obvious  resemblance, 
yet  a  no  less  obvious  difference.  A  resemblance  in 
manner,  but  a  difference  in  kind.  For,  as  he  loved 

*  Lond.  Polyg.         i  Is.  xlv.  17.  Rom.  xi.  26. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO   ISRAEL.  151 

Israel,  as  he  loved  no  other  nation  ; m  so  he  loved  his 
elect,  as  he  loves  no  other  people  ;n  and  as  his  love 
for  Israel  was  sovereign,  they  being  in  nature  no  bet- 
ter than  other  nations  ;  °  so  is  his  love  for  his  elect ; 
they  being  by  nature  dead  in  sin  and  children  of 
wrath  even  as  others. p  Yet,  in  kind,  the  love  with 
which  he  loves  his  elect,  differs  as  essentially  from 
that  with  which  he  loved  national  Israel,  as  the  love 
which  a  temporal  prince  feels  for  his  children,  dif- 
fers from  that  which  he  feels  for  his  subjects.  To 
national  Israel,  God  stood  in  the  relation  of  a  king ; q 
but  to  spiritual  Israel,  he  stands  in  the  relation  of  a 
Father. T  For,  although  in  some  passages  of  scrip- 
ture, he  is  spoken  of  as  acting  the  part  of  a  Father 
to  national  Israelites  ;  those  passages,  when  exam- 
ined, will  all  be  found  to  respect,  either  merely  his 
providential  kindness  to  them  and  care  over  them,  or 
his  treatment  of  those  among  them,  who,  being  cir- 
cumcised in  heart,  were  Israelites  indeed. 8 

Correspondent  to  this  difference  in  God's  love  for 
national  Israel,  and  his  love  for  the  people  of  whom 
they  were  a  figure,  is  the  difference  in  the  favors  by 
which  he  has  respectively  distinguished  them.  This 
appears — 1.  In  election:  both  were  indeed  objects 
of  God's  choice ;  but  in  different  relations  and  to 
different  conditions ;  the  former  he  chose  in  relation 
to  their  natural  ancestors,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Ja- 
cob ;*  but  the  latter,  in  relation  to  Christ,  of  whom 
those  patriarchs  were  only  types ; u  the  former,  to 
civil  and  temporal  -distinction:17  but  the  latter,  to 

mDeut.  vii.6 — 8.  nl  John  iv.  9, 10.  °Deut.  ix.  6.  PEph.  ii. 
1—3.  i  1  Sam.  xii.  12.  r  Matt.  vi.  8,  9.  2  Cor.  vi.  18.  s  Is.  i.  2. 
Jer.  iii.  4.  *Deut.  iv.  37.  "Num.  xxix.  17,  19.  Rom.  iv.  13. 
Gal.  iii.  16.  Heb.  xi.  17—19.  wDeut.  xxviii.  1—14. 


152  THE    LOVE   OP   GOD  [SEE.  IV 

spiritual  and  eternal  distinction.  x  —  2.  In  the  inherit- 
ances bequeathed  to  them  ;  to  the  former,  the  earthly 
Canaan  ;  y  but  to  the  latter,  the  heavenly,  even  that 
inheritance  which  is  incorruptible  and  undefiled,  and 
that  fadeth  not  away,  &c.z  —  3.  In  sanctification  : 
that  of  national  Israel,  as  such,  was  only  relative  and 
external  ;  a  but  the  sanctification  of  spiritual  Israel- 
ites is  personal  and  internal;13  though,  in  the  present 
state,  not  universal  andperfect,  c  And  —  4.  In  adop- 
tion. To  the  former,  as  God's  first-born,  or  national 
heir,  pertained  the  adoption  to  a  correspondent  pro- 
motion in  civil  arid  ceremonial  privileges-/  but  the 
adoption  of  the  elect  is  to  the  filial  relation  and  the 
heavenly  patrimony.  e  All  these  blessings,  by  which 
God  has  so  eminently  distinguished  the  objects  of 
his  electing  love,  the  apostle  Paul,  with  thanksgiving, 
enumerates  together,  in  a  few  words:  "Blessed," 
saith  he,  "be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  hath  blessed  us  with  all  spiritual  bless- 
ings in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  ;  according  as  he 
hath  chosen  us  in  him  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  that  we  should  be  holy  and  without  blame  be- 
fore him  in  love  ;  having  predestinated  us  unto  the 
adoption  of  children  by  Jesus  Christ  to  himself,  ac- 
cording to  the  good  pleasure  of  his  will."f 

A  like  difference,  too,  is  evident  in  the  covenants 
which  God  made  respecting  national  Israel,  and  that 
which  he  made  respecting  his  elect.  And  —  1.  In  the 
persons  with  whom  he  made  them.  Those  which 
respected  national  Israel,  he  made  with  men  —  as  that 


x  Rom.  viii.  28—34.  y  Gen.  xiv.  5—7.  xv.  18.  ^Heb.  xi.  16.  1  Pet. 
i.  3__5.   a  Lev  xi  45   Dellt  iv  32__35.  b  Rom  ^  28,  29.  Philip. 

iii.  3.    c  Rom.  vii.  18,  25.     d  Exo.  iv.  22.  Rom.  ix.  4.     e  Gal.  iv.  6. 
Jas.  ii.  5.     f  Eph.  i.  3—5. 


SER.    IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO   ISRAEL.  153 

which  he  made  with  Abraham,*  and  renewed  to 
Isaac?  and  to  Jacob  ;*    and  the   Sinaic  covenant, 
which,  through  Moses,  he  made  with  the  Israelites 
themselves  ; k  but  the  covenant  of  grace  respecting 
the  elect,  he  made  with  Christ,  their  divine  Cove- 
nanteeand  Surety.1 — 2,  In  the  blessings  which  they 
respected.     Those  which  he  made  with  the  Israel- 
itish  patriarchs  concerning  their  natural  posterity, 
as  such,  respected  only  temporal  things ;  to  wit,  their 
redemption  and  deliverance  from  Egyptian  bondage, 
and  their  possession  of  Canaan  and  civil  prosperity 
there  ;ra  but  the  covenant  of  grace,  which  he  made 
with  Christ  concerning  the  elect,  respects  both  grace 
and  glory,  and  which,  as  provisions  of  this  covenant, 
were  given  to  them  in  him  before  the  world  began. a 
Accordingly,  as  God's  national  heir,  when  liable  to 
judicial  death  from  the. hand  of  the  destroying  angel, 
was  redeemed  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  paschal  lambs  ;  ° 
so  his  heirs  of  grace  and  glory,  when  liable  to  eter- 
nal death,  as  the  just  punishment  for  their  sins,  were 
redeemed  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  who  appeared 
in  their  law-place  and  suffered  the  just  for  the  un- 
just ; p  and  as  the  nation  of  Israel,  thus  redeemed 
from  the  fate  of  Egypt  by  sacrifice,  were  delivered 
from  the  yoke  of  Egypt  by  power  ;q  so,  the  elect  be- 
ing all  redeemed  from  the  fate  of  this  world  by  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  are,  in  the  order  of  time,  all  de- 
livered from  the  course  of  this  world  by  the  power 
of  divine  grace. T     These  favors,  too,  in  both  cases, 

gGen.  xv.  18.  xvii.  2—4.  hGen.  xxvi.  3,  4.  'Ibid,  xxviii. 
13,  14.  kExo.  xxiv.  2—7.  Deut.  v.  2—4.  iPsal.  Ixxxix.  19. 
34—37.  Luke  i.  32,  33.  m  Deut.  vii.  8,  9.  Psal.  cv.  8—11.  n  John 
vi.39.  2  Tim.  i.  9.  Comp.  Psal.  Ixxxiv.  li.  °  Exo.  xii.  6.  13. 
p  Gal.  iv.  4,  5.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  i  Exo.  xv.  13,  r  Gal.  i.  4. 

20 


154  THE    LOVE    OF   GOD  [SEE.  IV. 

depended  on  covenant-relation.  For,  as  God,  in  all  he 
did  for  national  Israel,  had  respect  to  his  covenant  in 
one  form  or  another  made  with  their  fathers  ; s  so,  all 
he  has  done  or  will  do  for  his  elect,  is  but  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  covenant-stipulations  with  Christ,  their  di- 
vine Surety  and  the  antitype  of  those  fathers  ;l  More- 
over, as  the  covenants  concerning  national  Israel,  and 
that  concerning  the  elect,  differed  in  the  persons  with 
whom  they  were  made,  and  in  the  blessings  which 
they  respected ;  so  also — 3.  In  the  tenor  of  their 
promises.  The  promises  respecting  the  entrance  of 
national  Israelites  into  Canaan,  and  their  continuance 
and  prosperity  there,  were  all  conditional ;  the  fulfil- 
ment of  them  being  suspended  upon  their  obedi- 
ence ;u  and  hence  many  of  them,  for  their  disobedi- 
ence, died  in  the  wilderness ;  and  though  the  nation, 
as  such,  however  reduced,  did  enter  the  land,  yet,  for 
their  idolatries  they  were  suffered  to  be  carried  out 
of  it  into  Babylon,  where  they  remained  in  a  state  of 
captivity  seventy  years  ;  and  though,  by  divine  favor 
they  were  restored  to  it,  yet  again,  for  their  rebelion, 
and  especially  for  their  ill-treatment  of  the  Messiah, 
they  were  ejected  from  it,  and  have  ever  since  been 
dispersed  among  other  nations.  But  the  promises 
respecting  the  elect,  were  all  made  to  Christ ;  and 
therefore  the  fulfilment  of  them  depended,  not 
upon  their  obedience  but  upon  his  faithful  compli- 
ance with  his  covenant-engagements ;  and  the 
Father  having  acknowledged  his  entire  com- 
pliance with  these  engagements,  by  raising  him 
from  the  dead  and  receiving  him  to  heaven ; w  it 
follows  that  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  promises  thus 

el  Chron.  xvi.  13—22.     'Psal.  Ixxxix.   27—37.    Is.  xlii.  6.  7. 
»Num.  xxxii.  11.    Is.  i.  19,  20.     wRom.  iv.  25.    Acts  ii.  33. 


SER.  IV,]  MANIFESTED   TO    ISRAEL.  155 

made  to  him,  concerning  the  people  whom  he  repre- 
sented in  his  obedience  and  death,  must  be  just  as 
certain  as  it  is  that  the  power  and  faithfulness  of  God 
are  infallible.    Thus  the  apostle  Paul  distinguish- 
ed the  promises  made  in  Christ  from  those  that  were 
made  out  of  him :  "  For,"  said  he,  "  all  the  promises 
of  God  in  him  are  yea,  and  in  him  Amen,  unto  the 
glory  of  God  by  us.  x     Compared,  therefore,  either 
with  Moses,  who  was  a  political  mediator  for  Israel/ 
or  with  Aaron,  who  was  their  ceremonial  mediator,1 
"  Christ  hath  obtained  a  more  excellent  ministry,  by 
how  much  also  he  is  the  Mediator  of  a  better  cove- 
nant, which  was  established  upon  better  promises." a* 
As  in  its  source,  so 

II.  In  the  special  instances  of  it  here  specified, 
the  favor  of  God  to  the  national  Israelites  serves  to 
illustrate  his  greater  favor  toward  the  people  of  whom 
they  were  a  type.  And 

1.  In  his  separation  of  them,  on  account  of  which 
they  are  here  and  elsewhere  called  saints  or  holy. 
He  separated  them  by  his  purpose  of  providence, 
when  he  chose  them  in  their  patriarchs  to  be  a  holy 
and  a  special  people  unto  himself,  above  all  other  na- 
tions ; b  yet,  in  this,  they  were  only  a  type  of  his  more 
beloved  people,  whom,  by  his  purpose  of  grace,  he 
separated  in  Christ,  according  as  he  chose  them  in 
him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  they 

x2Cor.  i.  20.  yExo,  xxxii.  11—14.  zNum.  xvi.  46—48 
aHeb.  viii.  6. 

*  That  many  of  the  national  Israelites  received  grace  on  earth 
and  glory  in  heaven,  are  facts  clearly  revealed ;  Heb.  xi.  13  ;  but 
they  received  them,  not  according  to  the  national  covenants  but 
according  to  the  covenant  of  grace,  and  as  they  themselves  be- 
longed to  the  election  of  grace.  Rom.  xi.  1 — 7. 
b  Lev.  xx.  24.  Dent.  xiv.  2. 


156  THE    LOVE    OF   GOD  [SER.  IV. 

should  be  holy  and  without  blame  before  him  in 
love.c  He  separated  the  Israelites  in  redemption 
by  the  paschal  sacrifice ; d  but  much  more  the  elect 
in  redemption  by  Christ,  who,  that  he  might  sanc- 
tify the  people  [whom  he  represented]  with  his 
own  blood,  suffered  without  the  gate. e  More  visi- 
bly, however,  God  separated  the  Israelites,  when  he 
delivered  them  from  the  iron  yoke  of  Pharaoh  and 
brought  them  forth  out  of  the  house  of  bondage/  A 
great  favor  indeed  ;  yet,  merely  a  type  of  that  greater 
favor  which  he  confers  on  his  elect  in  their  effectual 
calling  ;  in  which  he  delivers  them  from  the  stronger 
yoke  of  Satan,  and  brings  them  from  under  the  more 
absolute  bondage  of  the  covenant  of  works. g  Herein 
also,  he  gives  them  a  new  heart  and  puts  within 
them  a  new  spirit;  whereby  he  enables  them  in  some 
good  degree,  to  walk  in  newness  of  life.11  Thus, 
even  in  the  present  state,  they  are  made  free  from 
sin;  riot,  indeed,  from  its  hatefid  indwelling,  but, 
from  its  ruinous  dominion^  For,  being  purified  in  the 
eye  of  divine  justice,  by  the  precious  blood  of  Christ, 
and  renewed  in  their  minds,  by  the  regenerating 
and  sanctifying  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  they 
become  manifestly  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good 
works — works  which  God  had  before  ordained  that 
we  should  walk  in  them ;  that  thereby  we  might  show 
forth  the  praises  of  him  who  hath  called  us  out  of 
darkness  into  his  marvelous  light. k 

Farther  to  promote  the  visible  separation  of  his 
national  Israel,  God  gave  them  laws,  which  even  their 
enemies  confessed  were  diverse  from  those  of  all 

«Eph.  i.  4.  dExo.  xi.  7.  eHeb.  xiii.  12.  fLev.  xxvi.  13. 
«Luke.  xi.  21,  22.  Rom.  vi.  14.  hEz.  xxxvi.  26,  27.  Rom.  vi. 
i_4.  i  Ibid.  ver.  22.  k  Titus  ii.  14.  Eph.  ii.  10.  1  Pet.  ii.  9. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO   ISRAEL.  157 

other  people;*  and  to  which  correspond  the  gospel, 
the  law  of  faith™ — its  ordinances — its  code  of  church- 
discipline,  and  all  its  precepts  respecting  holy  and 
useful  living,  which  he  hath  specially  given  to  his 
spiritual  Israel,  the  gospel-church ;  and  by  which  he 
separates  and  distinguishes  her,  both  from  mystical 
Babylon,  and  from  "the  world  that  lieth  in  wicked- 
ness."0 "The  grace  of  God,"  the  gospel,  "which 
bringeth  salvation,"  that  is,  the  report  concerning 
the  way  of  salvation,  "  hath"  indeed  "  appeared  unto 
all  men,"  to  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews,  the  preaching 
of  it  to  all  nations  being  authorized  by  the  commis- 
sion;0 yet,  to  the  elect  only,  whether  among  Jews 
or  Gentiles,  it  is  rendered  the  power  of  God  unto 
saltation;  and  by  which  discriminating  influence, 
their  election  is  made  manifest,  both  to  themselves 
and  to  one  another  :  "  Knowing,"  saith  an  apostle  to 
believers,  "  your  election  of  God ;  for  our  gospel 
came  not  unto  you  in  word  only,"  as  it  does  to 
others  ;  "but  also  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  in  much  assurance." p  The  observance  of  its 
ordinances  is  a  duty  peculiar  to  believers,q — its  code 
of  discipline  extends  only  to  the  household  of  faith,* — 
and  its  precepts  constitute  specialty  the  rule  for  the 
deportment  of  Christians ;  it  being  to  them,  and  not 
to  the  world,  that  the  apostle  is  saying,  "  Only  let  your 
conversation  be  as  it  becometh  the  gospel  of  Christ." " 
Spiritual  Israelites,  moreover,  like  the  national 
Israelites,  are  relatively  and  professedly  separated 

» Esther  iii  8.  mRom.  iii.  27.  nl  John  v.  19.  Rev.  v.  3—6. 
0  Titus  ii.  11,  12.  Matt,  xxviii.  19.  Rom.  i.  16.  Acts  xiii.  48. 
P  1  Thess.  i.  4,  5.  1  Matt,  xxviii.  19.  Mark  xvi.  16.  Acts  ii. 
37—41.  1  Cor.  xi.  23—29.  'Matt,  xviii.  15—17.  1  Cor.  v.  12. 
•  Philip,  i.  27. 


158  THE   LOVE   OF   GOD  [SEE  IV. 

from  the  rest  of  mankind ;  and  therefore,  like  them, 
though  in  a  higher  sense,  are  required  to  be  holy, 
that  is,  to  be  practically  saints.1     For,  as  the  national 
Israelites,  according  to  the   legal  dispensation,  to 
which  they  voluntarily  acceded,  avouched  God  to  be 
their  God,  to  the  rejection  of  idols  and  of  idolatrous 
worship  ;u  so  all  that  are  in  reality  spiritual  Israelites, 
in  embracing  the  gospel,  have  received  Christ,  to  the 
rejection  of  every  other  object  of  trust,  and  his  in- 
stitutions, to  the  rejection  of  all  human  traditions; 
and  have  acknowledged  God  in  him  to  be  their  God, 
to  the  rejection  of  all  "  the  lying  vanities"  and  idola- 
trous ceremonies,  both  of  heathens  and  of  papists. * 
Accordingly,  my  believing  hearers,  when  in  our  dis- 
tress under  conviction,  God  revealed  himself  to  us 
in  Christ,  we  gladly  said,  "  Lo  this  is  our  God ;   we 
have  waited  for  him,  and  he  will  save  us  ;  this  is  the 
Lord ;  we  have  waited  for  him,  we  will  be  glad  and 
rejoice  in  his  salvation. y     Lord,  thou  wilt   ordain 
peace  for  us :  for  thou  also  hast  wrought  all  our 
works  in  us.     O  Lord  our  God,  other  lords  besides 
thee  have  had  dominion  over  us :  but  by  thee  only 
will  we  make  mention  of  thy  name.z     For  this  God 
is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever :   he  will  be  our  guide, 
even  unto  death." a 

2.  In  the  guardianship  to  which  God  committed 
the  national  Israelites,  who  are  here  called  his  saints : 
"  all  his  saints,"  said  Moses  to  Christ,  "  are  in  thy 
hand."  To  the  same  hand,  indeed,  because  it  is  in- 
fallible, he  committed  his  elect ;  yet  under  circum- 
stances infinitely  more  advantageous.  He  commit- 

lLev.  xi.  45.  1  Pet.  i.  15.  "Josh.  xxiv.  24.  *Col.  iii.  11. 
1  Thess.  i.  9.  2  Thess.  ii.  7—17.  *  Is.  xxv.  9.  z  Ibid.  xxvi.  12, 
13.  aPsal.  xlviii.  14. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO    ISRAEL.  159 

ted  national  Israel  to  the  hand  of  Christ,  as  his  cho- 
sen Administrator  of  that  peculiar  Providence  which 
he  designed  to  observe  in  regard  to  that  nation  ;  but 
his  elect,  he  committed  to  the  hand  of  Christ,  as  he 
had  chosen  him  to  be  their  Representative — trusted 
in  him  as  their  Surety b— and  constituted  him  the  De- 
pository and  Medium  of  all  that  grace  which  he  had 
resolved  to  employ  and  display  in  their  spiritual  and 
eternal  salvation.  ° 

The  preservation  of  the  national  Israelites,  and 
their  entrance  into  the  promised  Canaan,  under  the 
providential  care  of  Christ,  depended  upon  their 
own  obedience  ; d  and  hence,  in  perfect  consistency 
with  his  official  faithfulness,  many  of  them,  as  noticed 
before,  died  by  the  way,  and  the  nation,  though 
eventually  brought  into  the  land,  found  reason  to  la- 
ment their  ejection,  saying  to  God,  "The  people  of 
thy  holiness  have  possessed  it  but  a  little  while :  our 
adversaries"  (the  Chaldeans)  "  have  trodden  down 
thy  sanctuary."6  But  all  who  are  truly  spiritual 
Israelites  are  of  those  who  were  sanctified,  set  apart 
by  God  the  Father,  in  eternal  election,  preserved  in 
Jesus  Christ ;  not  from  falling  in  Adam,  but  from  fall- 
ing into  hell ;  and  called ; {  and  being  called,  they  are 
manifestly  justified ;  and  being  justified,  they  shall 
assuredly  be  glorified ; g  and  being  glorified,  they 
shall  never,  like  the  national  Israelites,  be  disinhe- 
rited ;  they  shall  go  no  more  out.h  The  two  people 
then  were  committed  to  the  hand  of  Christ,  in  very 
different  relations  to  God ;  the  former,  as  his  adopted 

bEph.  i.  6.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  Comp.  Is.  xlii.  21,  Jer.  xxx.  21, 
and  Heb.  vii.  14.  cCol.  i.  19.  2  Tim.  i.  9.  Rom.  v.  21,  and 
vi.  23.  <*Exo.  xxiii.  20—23.  Num.  xxxii.  11.  els.  Ixiii.  18. 
f  Jude,  ver.  1.  g  Rom.  viii.  30.  h  Rev.  iii.  12. 


160  THE   LOVE   OF   GOD  [SER.    IV. 

nation ;  *  the  latter  as  his  adopted  children  ;k  the  for- 
mer, as  his  subjects,  the  latter,  as  his  heirs  ;*  the  for- 
mer, as  the  objects  of  his  temporal  favor ;  the  latter  as 
the  objects  of  his  everlasting  love.m  Christ  also  re- 
ceived them  with  very  different  regards :  the  former, 
merely  as  his  providential  charge  ;  but  the  latter,  as 
the  members  of  his  mystical  body  and  the  constitu- 
ents of  his  chosen  spouse.  n  His  interest,  therefore, 
in  the  former,  was  only  official;  but,  his  interest  in 
the  latter,  is  sympathetic  and  conjugal.0  The  for- 
mer he  calls  Lo-ammi,  not  my  people  ;p  but  the 
latter  Hephzibah,  my  delight  is  in  her.q  Nor  did 
God  the  Father  resign  his  interest  in  the  elect,  or  at 
all  relinquish  his  care  of  them,  when  he  committed 
them  to  the  hand  and  possession  of  his  Son :  "  all 
mine"  said  Christ  to  the  Father,  "  are  thine,  and 
thine  are  mine ;  and  I  am  glorified  in  them."  The 
Father  and  the  Son,  have  a  common  interest  in  them 
and  a  common  care  over  them/  Hence,  Christ  not 
only  confidently  says,  "  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life, 
and  they  shall  never  perish ;  neither  shall  any  pluck 
them  out  of  my  hand  ;"  but  triumphantly  adds,  "  My 
Father  which  gave  them  me  is  greater  than  all,  and 
none  is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  Father's 
hand."8 

3.  In  the  station  which  God  assigned  to  the  na- 
tional Israelites.  They,  said  Moses  to  the  divine 
Angel,  sat  down  at  thy  feet ;  and  which  they  did  as 
he  was  in  the  cloud  that  stood  over  them.  See  pp. 


1  Rom  ix.  4.  k  Gal.  iv.  6.  J  Rom.  viii.  17.  m  Jer.  xxxi.  3. 
Zeph.  iii.  17.  n  1  Cor.  xii.  12.  Eph.  v.  25,  26,  27,  32.  «  Ibid, 
ver.  30.  Cant.  iv.  8,  9,  10.  Rev.  xxi.  9.  P  Hosea  i.  9.  1 1s.  Ixii. 
4.  r  John  xvii.  10.  s  Ibid.  x.  28,  29. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO    ISRAEL.  161 

147, 148.    This  might  be  designed  to  imply  their  de- 
pendence upon  him,  as  a  providential  preserver.1 
And  thus,  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  times, 
which  God  hath  appointed  for  the  purpose,  he  brings 
all  his  elect  to  the  feet  of  Christ,  acknowledging 
their  dependence  upon  him,  as  a  spiritual  Saviour. 
Accordingly,  It  is  written  in  the  prophets,  (Is.  liv, 
13.)  And  they  shall  be  all  taught  of  God.     Every 
man,  therefore,  saith  Christ,  that  hath  heard  and 
learned  of  the  Father  cometh  unto  me"     Convinced 
of  their  lost  estate,  they  come  to  him  for  salvation. 
According   to    prophecy,    they  fall    down    before 
him,   and  make   supplication   unto    him,   saying, 
Surely  God  is  in  thee;  yes,    God  is  in  Christ, 
reconciling   the    world,    the    Gentiles,    unto    him- 
self,   not   imputing    their    trespasses   unto   ihem.^ 
Realizing  their  pollution  and  nakedness,  they  come 
to   him  for   cleansing  and  clothing.     Nor  do  they 
come  in  vain ;  for,  to  such,  his  precious  blood  is  a 
fountain  opened  for  sin  and  for  uncleanness ;  and  by 
him,  all  that  believe,  (in  doing  which,  coming  to  him 
consists)  are  justified  from  all  things*  Sensible  of 
spiritual  hunger  and  thirst,  they  come  to  him,  who, 
for  their  encouragement,  is  saying,  /  am  the  Bread 
of  life — eat  ye  that  ichich  is  good — and,  If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drinkJ    Thus  saved, 
and  cleansed,  and  justified  and  nourished,  like  the 
man  out  of  whom  the  legion  was  cast,  they  are  found 
sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  clothed,  and   in  their 
right  mind.z 

Still  addressing  the  divine  Angel  and  speaking  of 
the  Israelites,  Moses  adds, 

'  Num.  x.  33—36.  "John  vi.  45.  *  Is.  xlv.  14.  2  Cor.  v.  19. 
xZechxiii.  1.  1  John  i.  7.  Acts  xiii.  39.  yJohnri.  48.  It. 
ly.  2.  John  vii.  37.  »  Mark  r.  15. 

21 


162  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD         [SER.  IV. 

4.  They  shall  receive  of  thy  words.  From  the 
cloud,  they  had  received  of  his  words,  at  the  time  of 
their  exodus  from  Egypt, a  and  repeatedly,  during 
their  journey  in  the  wilderness  ;b  but  here,  Moses 
foretold  that  they  should  enjoy  the  same  favor,  in 
times  then  future  ;  though  in  a  somewhat  different 
manner,  as  noticed  and  explained  before.  See  pp.  148, 
149.  The  same  also,  is  true  of  spiritual  Israelites. 
They  have  received  of  the  words  of  Christ,  and  ac- 
cording to  promise  and  prophecy,  shall  still  receive 
of  them.  They  received  of  his  words,  at  their  con- 
version. Herein,  the  elect  receive  his  quickening 
word,  and  live, c — his  enlightening  word,  and  see* — 
his  inviting  word,  and  come  to '  him,e  and,  his  com- 
forting word,  and  rejoice  in  him ;  having  no  longer 
any  confidence  in  the  flesh.*  Thus  it  is,  that  he  calleth 
his  own  sheep  l)y  name  and  leadeth  them  out,  that  is, 
out  of  all  the  refuges  of  lies  in  which  they  had  trust- 
ed before,  into  a  state  of  faith  and  hope  in  himself/ 
Hence,  though  all  the  elect  belong  to  him  by  the  Fa- 
ther's gift  and  by  his  own  redemption  of  them  from 
under  the  curse,*1  yet  only  the  regenerate,  are  the 
called  of  Jesus  Christ.1  And  being  thus  effectually 
called  by  him,  they  receive  of  his  words,  when  they 
acknowledge  him  as  their  Lord  and  Master,  by  sub- 
mitting to  baptism,  according  to  his  command  and 
example ; k — by  uniting  with  some  branch  of  his 
Church,  in  gospel  order  ;! — by  partaking  at  his  table, 
in  commemoration  of  his  death  ;m  and  by  maintain- 

»Exo.  xiii.  21,22.  and  xiv.  1 — 4.  bNum.  ix.  15 — 23.  cJohn 
v.  25.  dPsal.  cxix.  130.  Rev.  Hi.  18.  «  Matt.  xi.  28.  John  vi. 
37.  f  Philip,  iii.  3.  e  John  x.  3.  h  John  vi.  39.  xvii.  6.  Eph.  i.  7. 
Rev.  v.  9.  'Rom.  i.  6.  kMatt.  xxviii.  19.  Mark  i.  9.  Acts  ii. 
41 .  xviii.  8.  '  2  Cor.  viii.  5.  m  I  Cor.  xi.  24. 


SER.  IV.]  MANIFESTED    TO    ISRAEL.  163 

ing  a  life  and  conversation  correspondent  to  their  ho- 
ly vocation.0  Moreover,  during  the  whole  course  of 
their  pilgrimage  on  earth,  they  receive  of  his  words, 
in  a  way  of  instruction  and  comfort ;  and  this,  not 
only  as  they  read  the  Scriptures  or  hear  the  gospel 
preached,  but  as  the  Holy  Ghost,  acting  in  his  name, 
presents  to  their  faith  the  things  of  Christ,  such  as 
his  righteousness,  his  atonement,  his  fulness  of  grace, 
and  his  advocacy  with  the  father  on  their  behalf, 
and  brings  to  their  remembrance  and  applies  to  their 
cases,  whatsoever  he  hath  spoken  for  their  edifica- 
tion and  comfort.p  Hence,  many  a  time,  all  the  true 
disciples  of  Jesus,  like  the  two  whom  he  accompanied, 
as  they  were  going  from  Jerusalem  to  Emmaus, 
have  reason  to  say,  Did  not  our  heart  burn  within 
us,  while  he  talked  with  us  by  the  way  and  while 
he  opened  to  us  the  Scriptures. q  Favored  with 
his  company  and  converse,  every  believer  may  say 
with  Newton, 

"  My  road  is  safe  and  pleasant  too;" 

and,  reviewing  seasons  of  special  interest,  under  his 
word  or  at  his  table,  each  may  adopt  the  grateful 
language  of  the  church,  saying,  /  sat  down  under 
his  shadow  with  great  delight,  and  his  fruit  was 
sweet  to  my  taste*  Happy,  indeed,  is  that  people, 
that  is  in  such  a  case ;  yea,  happy  is  that  people 
whose  God  is  the  Lord.3  Yet,  in  these  privileges, 
we  have  but  a  foretaste  of  those  richer  enjoyments 
which  our  ascended  Lord  has  in  store  for  us  in 
heaven. 

0 1  Thess.  ii.  12.     P  John  xiv.  26.  xvi.  14.    q  Luke  xxiv.  32. 
r  Cant.  ii.  3.     •  Psal.  cxliv.  15. 


164  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD,  &C.  [SER.  ir 

"  These  are  the  joys  he  lets  us  know, 
In  fields  and  villages  below  ; 
Gives  us  a  relish  of  his  love, 
But  keeps  his  noblest  feast  above." 

And  soon,  my  believing  hearers,  he  will  call  us  to  it ; 
yes,  soon  we  shall  receive  his  word  from  heaven,  say- 
ing Come  up  hither?  O  welcome  message !  O  bless- 
ed hour  of  sweet  release  !  Then  shall  our  happy 
souls,  removed  from  these  tenements  of  clay — dis- 
charged from  this  war  in  the  members — and,  de- 
livered for  ever  from  all  sin,  temptation  and  sorrow, 
be  associated  with  "the  spirits  of  the  just  made  per- 
fect," and  enjoy  that  "rest  which  remaineth  for 
the  people  of  God."u  Nor  shall  our  bodies,  though 
for  a  season  left  behind,  be  lost  or  forgotten  in  the 
dust ;  but,  at  the  appointed  time,  shall  hear  his 
awakening  voice  and  in  his  glorious  image  rise.w  And 
thus  prepared  in  soul  and  body  for  the  heavenly  in- 
heritance, we  shall  finally  receive  his  word  saying 
to  us,  Come  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world*  EVEN  so,  LORD  JESUS. 

tRev.  xi.  12.      »Heb.  xii.  23.  and  iv.  9.     w  Philip,  iii.   21. 
x  Matt.  xxv.  34. 


SERMON  V. 

THE  MOSAIC  LAW  AN  INHERITANCE  TO 
ISRAEL. 


DEUT.  xxxiii.  4.     Moses  commanded  us  a  law :  even  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  Congregation  of  Jacob. 


THESE  words,  with  those  of  the  next  verse,  seem 
to  stand  unconnected  with  the  context.  Hence  it 
is  somewhat  doubtful  by  whom  they  were  spoken. 
Most  commentators,  both  Jewish  and  Christian,  in- 
terpret them  as  being  the  words  of  the  children  of 
Israel ;  and  two  of  the  Chaldee  Paraphrases,  to  wit, 
the  Jerusalem  and  that  of  Jonathan  go  so  far  as  to 
preface  the  text  thus  :  "  The  children  of  Israel 
said,  Moses  commanded  us  a  law,  &c."  But,  with 
all  this  mass  of  opinion  to  the  contrary,  I  cannot 
help  believing  with  Bp.  Patrick,  that  the  language 
of  our  text  is  the  language  of  Moses,  speaking  of 
himself  in  the  third  person,  and  including  himself 
with  the  people  of  Israel.  That  it  was  no  unusual 
thing  for  Moses  thus  to  speak  of  himself,  must  be 
obvious  to  every  one,  in  reading  the  Five  Books 
which  he  wrote.  Among  the  numerous  instances 
thereof  which  occur  in  these  books,  we  have  one 
that  cannot  be  disputed,  in  the  first  verse  of  the 
chapter  before  us ;  This  is  the  blessing  wherewith 

22 


166  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SEE.  V. 

Moses,  the  man  of  God,  [not  I]  blessed  the  children 
of  Israel  before  his  death  [not  my  death]. 

By  thus  speaking  of  himself,  Moses  happily  com- 
bined modesty  with  dignity,  and  meekness  with  autho- 
rity. If  he  had  said,  /  commanded  us  a  law,  it  would 
have  sounded  harsh  and  haughty ;  and  if  he  had 
said  to  Israel,  /  commanded  you  a  law,  he  would 
have  seemed  to  declare  himself  exempt  from  obli- 
gation to  that  law.  But,  by  speaking  of  himself  in 
the  third  person  and  by  name,  he  modestly  accounted 
for  his  act  referred  to,  by  reminding  the  people,  that 
it  was  the  act  of  one  whom  God  had  condescended 
to  employ  for  that  purpose  ;  and,  by  using  us  instead 
of  you,  he  plainly  acknowledged  himself  to  be, 
equally  with  his  brethren,  under  the  law  which  he 
officially  delivered.  Thus  he  maintained  authority 
and  dignity,  without  arrogance  and  ostentation.  In 
like  manner,  the  prophets  prefaced  most  of  their 
Visions,  and  the  apostles  most  of  their  Letters. 

Justice  to  our  subject  requires,  that,  in  the  discus- 
sion of  it,  we  consider — 

The  concern  which  Moses  had  in  the  giving  of  the 
law, 

The  people  to  whom  the  law,  through  him,  was 
given,  and 

What  the  law  was  to  the  people  to  whom  it  was 
thus  given. 

1.  The  concern  which  Moses  had  in  the  giving  of 
the  law.  That  he  was  not  the  author  and  enactor 
of  it,  must  be  evident  to  all ;  for  then  the  transgres- 
sion of  it  would  have  been  merely  an  offense  against 
him ;  whereas  the  whole  tenor  of  divine  revelation 
shows  it  to  be  an  offense  against  God.  Of  this  the 
record  of  David's  confession,  furnishes  the  clearest 


SER.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  167 

possible  proof  and  illustration  ;  for  although  he  had 
greatly  injured  Uriah  and  disgraced  Israel,  he  con- 
sidered the  sinfulness  of  his  conduct  as  being  only 
against  God;  "  I  have  sinned  against  the  LORD," 
said  he  ;  and  addressing  him,  he  said,  "  Against 
thee,  thee  only  have  I  sinned  and  done  this  evil  in 
thy  sight :  that  thou  mightest  be  justified  when  thou 
speakest,  and  be  clear  when  thou  judgest." a  But 
the  sin  which  he  deplored  was  an  actual  transgres- 
sion of  the  law,  delivered  on  Sinai ;  of  which  law, 
therefore,  God,  and  not  Moses,  must  have  been  the 
author  and  enactor.b  Besides,  that  the  moral  law* 
did  not  receive  its  origin  in  any  thing  in  which  the 
ministry  of  Moses  was  concerned,  is  manifest ;  for, 
in  its  nature  and  obligation,  it  existed  coeval  with 
man,  and  therefore  more  than  two  thousand  years 
before  its  promulgation,  through  Moses,  on  mount 
Sinai.  This  appears  both  from  reason  and  from 
revelation. 

It  appears  from  reason.  For  if  man  when 
created,  had  been  left,  for  any  given  time,  without 
being  under  moral  obligation  to  his  Creator,  you 
must  all  perceive,  that  during  that  time,  he  must 
have  been,  in  a  moral  sense,  as  independent  of  his 
Creator,  as  his  Creator  was  of  him ;  that  is,  man 
could  have  been  no  more  accountable  to  God,  for 
his  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds,  than  (shocking  to 
say)  God,  for  his  own  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds, 
would  have  been  accountable  to  man.  Thus  cir- 

a  2  Sam.  xii.  13.     Psal.  li.  4.         b  Exo.  xx.  14. 

*  We  call  this  law  moral,  because  it  takes  cognizance  of  the 

thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart,  (Heb.  iv.  12.    Matt.  v.  22.  28.) 

which  human  laws  cannot,  and  because  it  is,  to  mankind,  the 

standard  of  their  moral  duty,  both  toward  God  and  one  another. 


168  THE    MOSAIC   LAW  [SER.  V. 

cumstanced,  our  first  parents  might  have  cursed  one 
another,  or  even  their  Maker — or  Adam  might  have 
murdered  Eve,  or  Eve  him ;  or  both  might  have 
committed  suicide,  without  committing,  in  either 
case,  any  moral  evil.  In  short,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  them,  or  any  of  their  posterity,  while 
in  that  lawless  state,  to  have  sinned  at  all ;  "  for 
where  no  law  is,  there  is  no  transgression."6 

"  But,"  says  one,  "  our  first  parents  were  under 
a  positive  injunction  not  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  a 
certain  tree."  Granted  :  but  who  does  not  per- 
ceive, that  if  they  were  not  previously  under  moral 
obligation  to  obey  God,  that  injunction  itself,  in  re- 
gard to  moral  obligation,  must  have  been  perfectly 
nugatory — a  command  wholly  without  force — even 
as  much  so,  as  that  of  one  free  man  saying  to  an- 
other equally  free,  Thou  shalt  not  eat  of  this  or 
that ;  the  man  commanded  being,  in  such  case, 
under  no  obligation  to  obey  the  man  commanding 
him.  That  any  command  may  be  equitably  binding 
on  the  person  to  whom  it  is  delivered,  that  person 
must  be  under  prior  obligation,  natural  or  relative, 
to  obey  the  authority  from  which  it  comes.  Such, 
for  instance,  are  the  obligations  of  children,  to 
obey  their  parents,  those  of  Servants,  to  obey 
their  masters,  and  those  of  subjects  or  citizens,  to 
obey  their  sovereigns  or  magistrates.  From  reason 
itself,  therefore,  we  are  constrained  to  believe,  that 
the  obligation  of  the  moral  law  was  binding  on  man 
as  soon  as  he  existed — that  this  objigation  was  in- 
separable from  his  relation  to  God,  as  his  Creator, 
and  that  he  had  the  requisit  knowledge  of  it  by 
the  light  of  nature.  Hence  the  obligation  which 

cRom.  iv.  15. 


SEK.  V.]  AN   INHERITANCE    TO   ISRAEL.  169 

Adam  was  under  to  obey  the  positive  command  not 
to  taste  nor  even  to  touch  the  fruit  of  a  certain  tree, 
on  pain  of  death — his  great  criminality  in  transgress- 
ing that  command,  and  the  fatal  consequences  there- 
of, to  himself  and  to  all  his  posterity.  See  Ser.  iii. 
pp.  127—133. 

The  same  also  appears  from  revelation.  For  by 
this  infallible  light,  we  perceive,  not  only  that  Adam 
personally  was  made  under  the  law,  but  likewise,  that 
in  and  with  him,  all  his  natural  posterity  were  made 
under  it ;  they  being  all  seminally  and  representative- 
ly in  him.  That  seminally  all  Adam's  natural  poste- 
rity were  under  the  law  in  him  and  became  depraved 
with  him,  is  evident  from  the  condition  in  which 
they  descend  from  him.  For,  "  as  by  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin ;  so  death 
passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned."  Rom. 
v.  12.  And,  that  representatively  they  were  all  un- 
der the  law  in  him9  is  equally  evident  from  the  re- 
vealed fact,  that  with  him  they  were  all  involved 
in  condemnation  by  his  original  offense : — by  the 
offense  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  con- 
demnation, Rom.  v.  18.*  Moreover,  that  the  moral 

*  Rightly  to  understand  this  chapter,  (Rom.  v.)  it  must  be 
noticed,  that  the  apostle  herein  treats  of  Adam  as  "  the  figure  of 
him  that  was  to  come,"  namely  Christ ;  ver.  14 ;  and  that  he 
elsewhere  speaks  of  Adam  and  Christ,  as,  in  certain  respects, 
the  only  two  men  that  ever  existed,  or,  that  properly,  at  least 
immediately  received  their  being  from  God ;  the  former,  as  the 
first  Adam,  the  latter  as  the  second  and  last  Adam.  See  1  Cor. 
xv.  45—49. 

The  analogy  between  the  two  was  founded  in  the  public  and 
relative  stations  respectively  assigned  to  them.  For,  as  God  con- 
stituted Adam  the  federal  and  natural  head  of  all  his  posterity,  as 
such ;  they  being  all  representatively  and  essentially  in  him ;  so 


170  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.    V. 

laic  was  in  force  before  its  promulgation  on  Sinai, 
and  that  it  took  cognizance  of  natural  as  well  as 


he  constituted  Christ,  as  Mediator,  the  federal  and  spiritual  Head 
of  all  the  elect ;  according  as  he  chose  them  in  him,  and  in  him 
endowed  them  with  grace  and  glory  before  the  world  began.  Prov. 
viii.  23—31.  Eph.  i.  4.  2  Tim.  i.  9.  Titus  i.  2.  John  xvii.  2. 
Comp.  Eph.  i.  22,  23.  iv.  15,  16.  Col.  i.  18,  19.  Hence,  by 
obvious  consequence, 

1.  As  all  Adam's  posterity,  being  represented  in  him  when  he 
transgressed,  were,  by  his  original  offense,  involved  in  condemna- 
tion with  him  ;  so  all  the  elect,  being  represented  in  Christ  when 
he  obeyed  and  died  as  their  Surety  and  Substitute,  were,  thereby, 
virtually  justified  in  and  with  him.     For,  "  as  by  the  offense  of 
one"  (Adam)  "  judgment  came  upon  all  men,"  of  every  age  and 
nation,  "  to  condemnation ;"  "  even  so,  by  the  righteousness  of 
one,"  (Christ)  "  the  free  gift,"  the  imputation  of  righteousness, 
".  came  upon  all  men,"  that  is,  upon  all  of  every  generation,  na- 
tion and  condition,  that  were  represented  in  him,  and  that,  not 
conditionally  but  effectually,  it  being  "  unto  justification  of  life." 
Rom.  v.  18.     Comp.  1  Pet.  iii.  18,  and  Rom.  iv.  25.     Many,  I 
am  aware,  contend  that  in  the  latter  as  well  as  in  the  former  part 
of  this  passage,  the  phrase  all  men  must  necessarily  be  understood 
to  mean  all  the  individuals  of  mankind.     But  if  so,  "  justification 
unto  life,"  must  through  Christ,  have  come  upon  them  all ;  and 
consequently,  either  some  justified  persons  must  be  lost,  or  all  the 
individuals  of  mankind  must  be  saved;  neither  of  which  comports 
with  the  tenor  of  revelation  ;  not  the  former,  for  whom  God  jus- 
tifies, he  glorifies ;  Rom.  viii.  30,  33,  34 ;  and  not  the  latter,  it 
being  contrary  to  the  plainest  accounts  of  the  final  judgment. 
Matt.  xxv.  34,  41,  46.     John  v.  28,  29,  and  Rev.  xx.  11—15. 
Besides,  that  the  phrase  all  men,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  text  in 
question,  is  to  be  understood  as  above  explained,  is  evident  from 
the  song  which  the  saved  will  address  to  Christ,  saying,  "  Thou 
art  worthy,"  &c.  "  for  thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us  to 
God  by  thy  blood,  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people, 
and  nation."     Rev.  v.  9,  and  vii.  9,  10. 

2.  As  all  Adam's  posterity  receive  moral  depravity  from  him 
their  natural  head,  Rom.  v.  12,  and,  as  such,  are  morally  dead  ; 
Eph.  ii.  1 1  so  all  the  elect  of  every  generation,  receive  quickening 


SER.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO   ISRAEL.  171 

practical  obliquity,  the  apostle  proves  by  the  exist- 
ence of  sin  and  the  consequent  reign  of  death,  during 

grace  from  Christ,  their  spiritual  Head,  John  i.  16 ;  and  so  be- 
come spiritually  alive.     John  i.  4.  iv.  10,  14,  and  v.  25. 

Correspondent  to  this  design  of  the  analogy  in  question,  is  the 
whole  scope  of  the  apostle's  reasoning,  in  Rom.  v.  concerning  justi- 
fication. For  while  he  constantly  keeps  his  figure  in  view,  his 
chief  object  is  to  show  the  speciality  and  excellence  of  the  life 
which  comes  through  Christ,  compared  with  that  which  was  lost 
through  Adam.  "  Not  as  the  offense,  so  is  the  free  gift ;"  ver.  15. 

1.  Not  in  extent.     It  does  not,  like  Adam's  offense,  extend  to 
all  mankind,  but  only  to  all  represented  in  Christ.     Nor 

2.  In  kind.     For,  it  is  not  (as  some  think)  a  mere  restoration 
to  the  elect,  of  what  they,  with  the  rest  of  mankind,  lost  in  Adam ; 
but  the  free  gift  of  what  is  infinitely  more  valuable ;  and  for  which 
the  apostle  intimates  there  is  a  sufficient  reason  in  the  amplitude 
of  the  provision  made  for  them  in  Christ.     "  For  if  through  the 
offense  of  one,"  that  of  Adam,  "  many,"  even  all  his  natural  pos- 
terity, as  such,  "  be  dead,"  morally  and  legally,  and  therefore  liable 
to  death  eternal,  Is  it  not,  as  if  the  apostle  had  said,  equally,  yea 
"  much  more"  evident,  that  "  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  by 
grace,"  (that  is,  the  gift  of  justifying  righteousness,  and  this  im- 
puted by  an  act  of  grace,)  "  which  is  by  one  man,  Jesus  Christ, 
hath  abounded  unto  many,"  the  many  whom  he  covenanted  to 
save — the  many  for  whom,  according  to  Matt.  xx.  28,  he  gave  his 
life  a  ransom — and  therefore,  that,  through  these  aboundings  of  his 
grace,  God  hath  granted  to  them  a  safer  standing  and  a  better  life 
than  Adam  lost  1     So  saith  Christ  of  his  sheep :  "  I  am  come  that 
they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abund- 
antly."    John  x.  10.     Neither, 

3.  Is  the  guilt  which  is  removed  from  those  who  are  justified  in 
Christ,  like  that  by  which  mankind  were  condemned  in  Adam — the 
guilt  of  a  single  offense :  "  Not  as  it  was  by  one  that  sinned,  so  is 
the  gift ;"  ver.  16 ;   "  for  the  judgment,"  the  sentence  of  it,  "  was" 
incurred  "  by  one,"  that  is'  by  Adam's  one  original  offense,  "tto  con- 
demnation ;  but  the  free  gift,"  that  of  justifying  righteousness,  to 
all  actual  sinners  on  whom  it  is  bestowed,  "  is  of  many  offenses  unto 
justification."  Comp.  Acts  xiii.39,  and  1  Cor.  vi.  11.     Moreover, 

4.  The  life  which  the  heirs  of  grace  receive  through  Christ, 
is  not,  like   that   which  they  had    in   Adam,  perishable    and 


172  THE   MOSAIC    LAW  [SEE.  V. 

the  long  range  of  time  between  Adam  and  Moses. 
"  For,"  saith  he,  "  until  the  law,"  that  is,  constantly 

loscable ;  but  immortal  and  secure.  "  For,"  verse  18,  "  if 
by  one  man's  offense,  death  reigned  by  one,"  by  one  man 
and  by  his  one  original  offense;  "  much  more,"  when  com- 
pared with  Adam's  short  life  in  paradise,  "  they  who  receive 
abundance  of  grace,"  as  all  who  are  saved  do,  at  their  conversion 
and  afterward,  "  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,"  imputed  for 
their  justification,  "  shall  reign  in  life" — life  immortal  and  hea- 
venly, "  by  one,  Jesus  Christ."  "  For,"  ver.  21,  "  as  sin,"  with- 
out any  help,  "  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign 
through  righteousness,"  through  a  righteous  medium,  "  unto 
eternal  life" — all  the  way  from  eternal  election  to  eternal  glorifi- 
cation, "  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

With  the  same  figure  in  view,  (1  Cor.  xv.  47 — 49.)  the  apostle 
reasons  in  like  manner  respecting  the  resurrection.  For  though 
(exemptions  admitted;  Gen.  v.  24.  Heb.  xi.  5.  2  Kings  ii.  11. 
1  Thess.  iv.  15 — 17.  1  Cor.  xv.  51,  52.)  all  Adam's  descendents, 
by  reason  of  his  guilt  imputed  and  his  depravity  transmitted  to 
them,  became  liable  to  corporal  death ;  Gen.  iii.  19.  Heb. 
ix.  27,  and  Romans  viii.  10 ;  yet  the  Spirit  of  God,  who 
raised  up  the  natural  body  of  Christ,  and,  at  his  ascension, 
formed  it  a  spiritual  body,  not  only  quickens  the  souls  of  the  elect 
in  this  life,  but  will  also,  at  the  appointed  time,  quicken  their  mor- 
tal bodies,  and  fashion  them  like  unto  the  spiritual  and  glorious 
body  of  Christ.  Rom.  viii.  11.  Philip,  iii.  21.  Thus,  "  as  we 
have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image 
of  the  heavenly  Adam.  1  Cor.  xv.  49.  Comp.  Rom  viii.  29. 

The  resurrection  of  the  dead,  by  the  authority  and  voice  of 
Christ,  as  the  Head  of  the  Church  and  the  Judge  of  the  world, 
will  indeed  be  universal.  "  For,"  1  Cor.  xv.  22,  "  as  in  Adam 
all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,"  as  it  regards  the 
body.  "  But  every  man  in  his  own  order,"  both  as  to  time  and 
rank;  (compare  Num.  ii.  17,  where  the  LXX.  use  the  word  ray^a, 
in  the  same  sense  ;)  "  Christ  the  first  fruits,'*  with  reference  to  all 
that  sleep  in  him  ;  ver.  23 ;  "  afterward  they  that  are  Christ's  at 
his  coming" — his  coming  to  judge  the  world  Yet,  not  these  only, 
but  the  wicked  also  shall  be  raised  :  for  The  multitude  (as  tzrai  rab- 
beem  is  rendered,  Psal.  xcvii.  1.)  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of 
the  earth  shall  awake ;  but  in  very  different  conditions ;  some  in 


SEK.    V.]  AN   INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  173 

from  the  beginning,  until  the  law  was  given  on 
Sinai,  as  well  as  afterward,  "  sin  was  in  the  world," 
brought  in  by  Adam's  transgression,  and  continued 
in  the  nature  and  manifested  in  the  lives  of  his  de- 
praved posterity:  "  but,"  adds  he,  "  sin  is  not  im- 
puted where  there  is  no  law ;"  and  therefore,  could 
not  then  have  been  imputed  if  there  had  been  no 
law.  "  Nevertheless,"  as  a  clear  proof  that  the  law 
icas  then  in  force,  and  that  sin,  a  transgression  of  it, 
was  imputed,  "  death,"  the  wages  of  sin,  "  reigned 
from  Adam  to  Moses"  and  that  not  only  over  prac- 

tlieir  sins,  (John  viii.  21,)  and  others  justified  in  Christ;  (Luke 
xiv.  14 ;)  and  therefore,  to  very  different  destinations  ;  some  to  ever* 
lasting  life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  Dan. 
xii.  2.  Comp.  John  v.  28,  29.  "  Then,"  continues  the  apostle, 
"  cometh  the  end,"  the  end  of  the  world,  the  end  of  time, 
"  when  he"  (Christ)  "  shall  have  delivered  up  the  kingdom,"  the 
mediatorial  kingdom,  "  to  God,  even  the  Father,"  from  whom 
he  received  it;  "  when  he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule  and 
authority  and  power,"  of  every  kind  that  is  inimical  to  him 
and  his  church.  "For,"  (according  to  prophecy,  Psal.  ex.  ],) 
"  he  must  reign,"  as  Mediator,  "  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies 
under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy"  to  his  people,  and  obstacle  to 
their  complete  happiness,  "  that  shall  be  destroyed,  is  death." 
Herein  will  be  accomplished  what  is  recorded,  1  Cor.  xv.  54 — 57. 
This  entire  subjugation  of  all  his  and  his  people's  enemies,  was 
secured  to  Christ,  as  Mediator,  by  the  Father's  purpose  and  dis- 
position of  things.  "  For,"  ver.  27,  "  He"  (the  Father)  "  hath" 
(by  covenant-engagement)  "  put  all  things  under  his  feet,"  the 
feet  of  Christ,  Psal.  viii.  6.  "  But  when  He,"  (the  Father)  "  saith 
all  things  are  put  under  him,"  (Christ)  "  it  is  manifest  that  He" 
(the  Father)  "  is  excepted,  who  did  put  all  things  under  him," 
(Christ.)  "  And,"  ver.  28,  "  when  all  things,"  according  to  pur- 
pose, "  shall  be"  actually  "  subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son 
also  himself,"  in  regard  to  his  official  reign,  "  be  subject  unto  him, 
that  put  all  things  under  him,  that  God,"  subsisting  in  the  CO- 
ESSENTIAL,  CO-EQUAL,  and  CO-ETERNAL  TRINITY,  may  be  ALL 
in  ALL. 

25 


174  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V 

tical  sinners,  but  also  over  infants,  "  even  over  them 
that  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression,"  that  is,  practically  ; — but  who,  not- 
withstanding, in  consequence  of  having  derived  a 
depraved  nature  from  him,  were  subject  to  natural 
death  ;  yea,  being  shapen  in  iniquity  and  conceived 
in  sin,  and  so  morally  and  legally  dead,  they,  in 
themselves  considered,  were  liable,  by  the  law,  to 
death  eternal.** 

d  Rom.  v.  13,  14.     Psal.  li.  S. 

*  For  holding  this  plainly  revealed  truth,  I  and  many  others 
have  been  charged  with  holding,  that  those  of  the  human  family 
who  die  in  infancy,  are  necessarily  consigned  to  future  misery. 
But  if  this  consequence  is  involved  in  the  above  doctrine,  I  am 
not  aware  of  it ;  and  certain  I  am,  that  the  opinion  imputed,  has 
never  entered  my  heart,  and  that  I  have  never  heard  it  avowed  by 
any  person  of  any  denomination.  Many,  indeed,  believing  that 
the-  Scriptures  leave  the  question  undecided,  think  we  ought  to  be 
silent  on  the  subject.  That  the  Scriptures  are  less  explicit  on  this 
article  than  on  many  others,  is  admitted ;  yet,  in  my  humble  opi- 
nion, they  say  enough  in  relation  to  it,  to  authorize  the  comfortable 
conclusion,  that  all  dying  in  infancy  are  saved.  And,  as  this  is 
my  decided  belief,  and  what  I  have  often  avowed,  I  take  this  op- 
portunity of  submitting  to  the  public,  some  of  my  thoughts  in 
regard  to  the  matter  in  question. 

1.  Then,  I  am  not  driven  to  this  belief,  by  indulging  the  com- 
mon idea,  that  it  would  be  cruel  or  unmerciful  in  God,  to  execute 
the  penalty  of  his  righteous  law  upon  those  of  Adam's  depraved 
and  guilty  posterity,  whom  he  is  pleased  to  call  hence  in  a  state 
of  infancy.  For  believing,  as  I  do,  that  it  is  agreeable  to  justice, 
divine  as  well  as  human,  that  punishment  should  be  proportionate 
to  crime,  I  believe  that  the  future  punishment  of  those  who  die  in 
their  sins,  will  be,  though  in  every  instance  endless,  yet,  by  many 
degrees,  various ;  according  to  the  advantages  under  which  they 
will  have  lived,  and  the  degrees  and  aggravations  of  their  iniquity 
See  Ser.  iii.  p.  132. 

Now,  whatever  we  suppose  salvation  to  depend  on — whether 
upon  the  absolute  grace  of  God,  or,  in  whole  or  in  part,  on  the 
will  and  efforts  of  creatures;,  unless  we  have  the  atheism  to  deny 


.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  175 

Now,  with  these  facts  in  view,  it  must  be  evident 
to  all,  that  Moses  had  no  concern  in  the  origination 

the  certain  foreknowledge  of  God,  we  must  necessarily  believe, 
that  he  foreknew  all  that  would  be  saved,  and,  consequently,  all 
that  would  be  lost.  In  regard  to  the  latter,  therefore,  so  far 
would  it  have  been  from  cruelty  in  Him,  to  have  executed  the 
penalty  of  his  law  upon  them  in  all  generations,  before  they  had 
added  actual  transgression  to  natural  depravity,  and,  especially, 
before  they  had  aggravated  their  condition,  by  "  treasuring  up 
wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath,"  (Rom.  ii.  5.)  that  it  would  have 
been  a  great  instance  of  his  mercy  toward  them;  as  it  would 
have  prevented  the  accumulation  of  their  iniquity,  and  thereby,  the 
augmentation  of  their  endless  misery. 

2.  I  do  not  cherish  this  pleasing  hope  concerning  those  who 
die  in  a  state  of  infancy,  because  1  believe  (as  many  do)  that 
mankind  are  born   sinless;  for,  from  the   passages  referred  to, 
(Psal.  li.  5.  and  Rom.  v.  12.)  and  many  others,  the  contrary  is 
evident.     Besides,  if  they  were  born  sinless,  they  could  have  no 
interest  in  salvation  by  Christ ;  seeing  he  "  came  into  the  world 
to  save  sinners" — lost  sinners.     1  Tim.  i.  15.  Luke  xix.  10.     Nor 
-do  I  believe, 

3.  That  the  salvation  of  those  who  die  in  a  state  of  in-fancy, 
has  any  dependence  upon  the  character  of  their  parents :  that  is., 
whether  they  descend  from  believers  or  unbelievers ;  Matt.  iii.  9, 
10.  viii.  11,  12.     John  i.  13;  or  upon  any  parental  or  ministerial 
dedication  of  them  or  ceremony  performed  on  them  ;  which  would 
necessarily  imply,  that  these  things  have  in  them  a  cleansing  and 
saving  virtue,  and  that  they  are  essential  to  salvation  ;  whereas  it 
is  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  alone,  that  cleanseth  from  all  sin. 
1  John  i.  7.    Moreover,  to  suppose  the  contrary,  is  to  suppose  that 
millions  dying  in  infancy  are  excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven, merely  because  descended  from  heathen,   unbelieving,   or 
negligent  parents.     But 

4.  I  believe,  that  all  who  in  holy  Providence  are  called  hence 
in  a  state  of  infancy,  are  of  those  whom  God  blessed  with  all 
spiritual  blessings  in  Christ,  according  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in  him 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world  ;  and  therefore  that  they  are  of 
those  whom  Christ  redeemed  by  his  precious  blood.      Eph.  i. 
3 — 7.    That  the  chosen  and  redeemed  of  the  Lord,  are  such  while 
infants,  nay  before  born,  is  unquestionable;  Rom.  ix.  11;  why 


176  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V. 

of  the  law.     Not,  surely,  in  the  origination  of  the 
moral  laic ;  for  it  was  in  force  from  the  creation  of 

then,  may  not  those  who  die  in  infancy,  be  of  that  number? 
Nevertheless, 

5.  It  does  not  follow,  that  those  who  die  while  infants,  any 
more  than  those  who  live  to  adult  age,  can  go  to  heaven  without 
regeneration.  For  "  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,"  that 
is,  carnal ;  John  iii.  6 ;  but  "  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God,"  Rom.  viii.  7,  and  therefore  must  be  changed  by  regenerating 
grace,  or  it  never  can  enjoy  God  ;  yea,  unless  born  again,  the 
creature,  whether  called  hence  in  infancy  or  afterward,  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God.  John  iii.  3.  Nor  is  the  necessity  of  the 
new  birth  any  obstacle  to  the  salvation  of  those  who  die  in  in- 
fancy; for,  as  in  this  gracious  change,  the  creature,  infant  or 
adult,  is  entirely  passive,  the  former  may  as  well  be  the  subject  of 
it  as  the  latter  ;  the  regenerating  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  like 
the  blowing  of  the  wind,  having  no  dependence  upon  the  will  or 
co-operation  of  creatures.  John  iii.  8.  It  is  therefore  the  de- 
nial, (not  the  belief,]  of  eternal  election,  particular  redemption, 
and  sovereign  regeneration,  that  implies  the  exclusion,  of  in- 
fants and  of  idiots  also  (dying  such)  from  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven ;  for  if  an  interest  in  Christ,  or  a  participation  in  regenerating 
grace,  depend  upon  some  condition  to  be  performed  by  creatures, 
it  necessarily  follows,  that,  whereas  neither  infants  nor  idiots  are 
capable  of  performing  any  such  condition,  they  must  either  be 
taken  to  heaven  without  an  interest  in  Christ,  and  without  regene- 
ration, or  they  must  inevitably  perish. 

The  grounds  upon  which  I  believe  the  salvation  of  those  who 
die  in  a  state  of  infancy,  are  chiefly  the  following. 

1.  It  is  highly  probable  that  pome  are  made  partakers  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  in  his  regenerating  and  sanctifying  influence,  before 
they  are  born.     See  the  case  of  Jeremiah,  chapter  i.  5,  and  that  of 
Jo hn  the  baptist,  Lukei.  15;  who  were  also  then  sanctified  to  office. 

2.  That  some,  in  their  infancy,  are  taken  to  heaven,  is  evident 
from  the  words  of  Christ,  spoken  on  the  occasion  of  infants  being 
brought  to  him,  that  he  should  lay  his  hands  on  them  and  pray; 
for  when  the  disciples  objected  to  the  act,  he  said,  "  Suffer  little 
children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to  come  unto  me  :  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven ;"  by  which  he  could  not  have  meant  the 
kingdom  of  the  gospel  church  ;  for  none,  of  right,  can  be  added  te 


SER.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO   ISRAEL.  177 

man,  and  so  many  ages  before  Moses  was  born  ;  nor 
in  that  of  either  the  judicial  or  the  ceremonial  law ; 

this,  but  on  a  profession  of  faith,  (a  profession  of  which  infants  are 
incapable,)  but  the  kingdom  of  glory ;  which  therefore,  in  part, 
must  consist  of  infants.  Matt.  xix.  13 — 15.  I  cannot  think  with 
those  commentators  who  interpret  this  passage  as  of  the  same 
import  with  Matt,  xviii.  2 — 6,  and  Mark  ix.  36,  37,  42,  where  a 
little  child  is  made  an  emblem  of  a  humble  and  unoffending  be- 
liever. Here  nothing  of  this  kind  is  suggested. 

3.  The  saying  of  David  respecting  his  deceased  child,  "  I 
shall  go  to  him,  but  he  shall  riot  return  to  me,"  implies  his  belief 
of  the  child's  happiness ;  for  he  could  not  have  meant  simply,  that 
his  body  should  be  associated  with  the  body  of  the  child  in  the 
dust,  but  also  that  his  soul  should  be  associated  with  the  soul  of 
his  child  in  a  future  state  of  being ;  but  having  received  an  infal- 
lible assurance  that  God  had  put  away  his  sin,  (2  Sam.  xii.  13, 
23.)  David  rejoiced  in  the  belief,  both  that  his  soul  in  its  separate 
state,  should  enjoy  the  open  vision,  and  that,  at  the  resurrection, 
his  body  should  awake  with  the  likeness  of  his  blessed  Lord.    Psal. 
xvii.  15.     Consequently  he  must  have  believed  the  same  concern- 
ing his  child  to  whom  he  expected  to  go. 

4.  The  case  of  Rachel,  who  on  account  of  her  passionate  de- 
sire and  love  of  children,  is  introduced  as  representing  the  Jewish 
women,  whose  children  from  two  years  old  and  under,  to  include 
the  child  Jesus,  were  put  to  death  under  the  edict  of  Herod.     In 
this  representative  capacity,  Rachel  is  mentioned  as   mourning 
and  inconsolable ;  but  the  Lord  said  to  her,  "  Refrain  thy  voice 
from  weeping   and  thine  eyes  from  tears ;    for  thy  work,"   the 
pains,  toil,  and  solicitude  of  the  mothers  she  represented,  "  shall 
be  rewarded,"  that  is,  in  the  future  blessedness  of  those  children 
whom,  it  might  seem  to  them,  they  had  borne  and  so  far  nourished, 
in  vain ;  "  for  they"  (the  murdered  children)  "  shall  come  again 
from  the  land  of  the  enemy,"  the  empire  of  death,  the  last  enemy 
that  shall  be  destroyed.     "  And,"  therefore,  "  there  is  hope  in 
thine  end,  saith  the  Lord,"  that  is,  in  the  end  or  issue  which,  in 
regard  to  this  distressing  affair,  was  embraced  in  the  divine  coun- 
sel ;  or  there  is  hope  for  thy  posterity,  as  the  words  may  be  ren- 
dered, to  wit,  the  posterity  of  the  women  of  whom  she  was  a 
•figure  ;  "  that  thy  children  shall  come  again  to  their  own  border,1' 
as  they  will  when  raised  from  the  dead  in  the  place  where  they 


178  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V. 

for  the  statutes  of  the  former  and  the  ceremonies  of 
the  latter  were  all  delivered  to  him  from  the  mouth 

were  massacred.  But  could  it  at  all  have  assuaged  the  grief  of 
the  mothers  thus  cruelly  bereaved,  to  be  assured  merely  that  their 
children  should  participate  in  the  general  resurrection  ?  Or  would 
it  be  any  comfort  to  them,  at  the  day  of  Judgment,  to  see  their 
children  raised  from  the  dead,  if  they  must  also  see  them  cast  into 
hell 1  The  design  of  the  prophecy,  therefore,  must  have  been, 
that,  at  the  requisit  time,  it  might  be  explained  and  applied,  as 
it  was  by  the  Evangelist  Matthew^  to  comfort  those  weeping  mo- 
thers in  Israel,  with  an  assurance  that  their  martyred  children 
would  be  not  only  raised  from  the  dead,  but  raised  to  live  and 
reign  with  the  blessed  Jesus,  for  whose  sake  they  were  thus  hor- 
ribly murdered.  See  Jer.  xxxi.  15—17.  Matt.  ii.  17,  18.  But, 
5.  And  specially,  my  belief  that  all  who  die  before  they  become 
conscious  of  moral  right  and  wrong,  and  that  whether  in  Christian 
or  in  heathen  lands,  will  be  saved,  is  founded  upon  the  inspired 
descriptions  of  the  final  condemnation  of  the  wicked,  in  every 
instance  of  which,  it  is  declared  or  implied  that  the  sentence  will 
pass  against  them  according  to  their  works.  Matt.  xxv.  44 — 46. 
John  v.  28,  29.  Rom.  ii.  12—15.  Rev.  xx.  11—13.  But  in- 
fants, however  depraved  in  nature,  have,  properly  speaking,  no 
works,  no  actual  transgressions,  for  which  to  be  judged ;  and 
therefore  do  not  answer  the  character  of  those  who  shall  be  finally 
condemned. 

The  only  argument  at  all  plausible,  that  I  have  ever  heard 
raised  from  Scripture,  in  favor  of  the  contrary  opinion,  is  that 
which  supposes  there  were  many  infants  in  Sodom  when  it  was 
destroyed,  and  who,  if  saved,  must  have  been  righteous  ;  whereas, 
it  is  revealed,  that  if  only  ten  righteous  had  been  in  the  place  it 
would  have  been  spared.  Gen.  xviii.  32.  To  this  I  reply — 1. 
That,  considering  the  horrible  and  unnatural  abominations  to 
which  the  men  of  Sodom  had  become  abandoned,  it  is  highly 
probable,  that  there  were,  at  that  time,  no  infants  in  that  city. 
See  Gen.  xix.  4 — 8,  and  Rom.  i.  27.  And — 2.  Admitting  that 
there  were  many  hundreds  or  thousands  of  infants  there  at  that 
time,  and  supposing  them  all  to  have  been  regenerated  and  justi- 
fied in  Christ  before  their  death,  and  so  that  they  were  righteous 
and  saved,  they  nevertheless  did  not  answer  the  character  of  the 
ten  for  whose  sake  G?d  would  have  spared  the  city;  for  the  sense 


.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO   ISRAEL.  179 

of  God,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  books  of  Exodus  and 
Leviticus.  ° 

The  concern,  then,  which  Moses  had  in  the  giving 
of  the  law,  must  be  restricted  to  his  instrumentality 
in  the  promulgation  of  it  to  Israel,  and  which  con- 
sisted chiefly  in  the  following  things. 

1.  Moses,  through  the  ministry  of  angels,  received 
the  law  from  its  divine  author  and  enactor — the 
moral  part,  "  on  two  tables  of  stone,  written  with 
the  finger  of  God ;" f  and  the  judicial  and  ceremo- 
nial parts  viva  voce  from  the  mouth  of  God,  and 
wrote  them  in  a  book/ 

2.  He  delivered  the  whole  to  Israel,  though  at 
successive   times,   and  that   both   verbally  and    in 
writing. h     The  law,  therefore,  came  through  Moses, 
though  not  from  him.1 

3.  He  inculcated  upon  Israel  the  observance  of 

is,  that  if  ten  persons  practically  righteous,  were  found  in  -it, 
he  would  spare  it.  It  was  the  practical  wickedness  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Sodom,  already  referred  to,  that  brought  the  shower  of 
fire  and  brimstone  upon  them,  even  as  it  was  "  the  great  wicked- 
ness of  man  upon  earth"  that  before  had  brought  the  flood  of 
waters  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  old  world.  Gen.  vi.  5 — 7. 

To  these  remarks,  no  objection  can  be  fairly  raised  from  the 
case  of  Nineveh.  For  although,  in  suspending  the  judgment 
threatened  against  that  city,  God  considered  the  infants  in  it, 
consisting  of  more  than  120  thousand,  yet  not  in  regard  to  their 
eternal  state,  but  merely  as  a  reason  for  his  temporal  forbearance 
and  mercy  toward  the  Ninevites,  in  a  providential  way  ;  in  which 
he  also  had  respect  to  the  "  much  cattle"  in  the  place.  See  Jo- 
nah iv.  11,  and  comp.  Psal.  xxxvi.  6.  From  the  divine  proce- 
dure therefore,  in  that  case,  nothing  can  be  inferred /or  or  against 
the  spiritual  and  eternal  salvation  of  infants. 

eExo.  xxi.  1,  xxiv.  3.  Lev.  i.  1,  xxvii.  34.  f  Exo.  xxxi.  18. 
g  See  the  places  referred  to  by  the  letters  e  and  /,  and  Exo.  xxiv. 
4,  7,  and  xxxiv.  27.  h  Ibid  xix.  7,  xxiv.  3,  4,  7.  Deut.  i.  1,  3. 
and  xxxi.  1,  9,  24.  '  John  i.  17. 


180  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V. 

the  law,  which  God,  by  him  had  delivered  to  them. 
And  this  seems  to  be  chiefly  what  he  meant  when  he 
said  Moses  commanded  us  a  law  ;  for  the  law  which 
God  commanded,  Moses,  by  his  authority,  com- 
manded also  ;  that  is,  he  exhorted  and  admonished 
the  Israelites  to  obey  it. k 

We  precede  to  consider 

II.  The  people  to  whom  the  law,  through  Moses, 
was  given.  This  people  are  here  called  the  con- 
gregation of  Jacob,  after  him  from  whom  they  de- 
scended. But,  as  their  progenitor  is  more  frequently 
called  by  his  new  name  Israel,1  they,  in  correspon- 
dence therewith,  are  more  commonly  styled  the  con- 
gregation of  Israel. m  These  names  were  given  them, 
not  only  to  distinguish  them  from  every  other  people, 
but  also  to  signify  that  God  had  begun  to  fulfil  his 
promise  of  giving  to  Jacob  a  numerous  seed.n  Ja- 
cob had  left  his  father's  house  alone,  but  lo  !  he  is 
become  a  congregation,  and  a  very  large  one  too,  a 
nation.  "  With  my  staff,"  said  he,  meaning  with 
that  only,  having  neither  wife,  nor  friend,  nor  pro- 
perty, "  I  passed  over  this  Jordan,"  near  to  which 
he  might  be  standing,  and  which  he  had  in  his 
mind,  at  least,  if  not  in  his  sight,  "  and  now  I  am 
become  two  bands  ;"  referring  to  the  two  branches 
of  his  family,  by  his  two  wives  Rachel  and  Leah.0 
And,  as  with  reference  to  him,  this  people  are  called 
the  congregation  of  Jacob,  and  more  frequently 
after  his  new  name,  the  congregation  of  Israel,  so 
with  reference  to  his  twelve  sons,  each  of  whom  was 

kExo.  xxxv.  1,  4.  Deut.  iv.  40.  '  Gen.  xxxii.  28r  xxxv.  10, 
xlvii.  27,  31.  "»  Exo.  xii.  6,  19,  47.  Lev.  iv.  13.  Num.  xvi.  9. 
2  Chron,  v.  6.  xxiv,  6.  n  Gen.  xxviii.  14.  <?  Gen.  xxxii.  9 — 12, 


SER.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  181 

a  patriarch,  the  father  of  a  tribe,  they  are  called  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  and  simply  the  twelve  tribes. p 

Now,  to  these  tribes,  as  a  nation  or  people,  God, 
by  Moses,  gave  the  law  at  Sinai.  For,  although 
the  moral  part  was  the  same  under  which  Adam 
was  made,  and  which,  as  it  has  constantly  been, 
must  for  ever  remain,  binding  upon  all  his  posterity, 
as  such,  yet  the  legal  dispensation,  (including  the 
judicial  and  ceremonial  laws,  with  the  moral  law, 
and  given,  through  Moses,  in  the  form  of  a  cove- 
nant^) was  delivered  exclusively  to  the  congregation 
of  Jacob,  the  nation  of  Israel. q 

Our  subject  requires  that  we  consider 

III.  What  this  law  was  to  the  people  to  whom  it 
was  thus  given,  to  wit,  an  inheritance — even  the  in- 
heritance of  the  congregation  of  Israel.  Some,  in- 
deed, understand  the  inheritance  here  intended,  to  be 
the  people  of  Israel  themselves,  who  are  called  The 
Lord's  portion,  and  the  lot  of  his  inheritance. 
Deut.  xxxii.  9.  Much  more  commonly,  however, 
and  much  more  naturally,  the  term  inheritance  is, 
in  this  place,  understood  to  denote  the  law  given  to 
that  people.  Moses  commanded  us  a  law.— And 
what  was  it  to  them  \  An  inheritance ;  even  the 
inheritance  of  the  congregation  of  Jacob.  See 
Psal.  cxix.  111.  Nor  is  there  any  want  of  fitness 
in  the  metaphor. 

"  The  law,"  like  a  rich  inheritance,  "  is  good  if 
a  man  use  it  lawfully."  1  Tim.  i.  8.  And,  as  far 
as  Israel  so  used  it,  the  law,  the  whole  legal  dispen- 
sation was  a  rich  and  valuable  inheritance  to  them. 
The  moral  law  was,  to  them  in  general,  an  infallible 

p  Gen.  xlix.  38.    Jas.  i.  1..     <*  Exo.  xx.  1,  &c.     Lev.  xxvi.  46. 

24 


182  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V. 

rule  of  moral  duty  both  toward  God  and  one  ano- 
ther ;  arid,  to  the  regenerate  among  them,  it  served 
to  discover  their  sinfulness  of  nature  and  life,  and 
their  need  of  the  righteousness  and  atonement  of 
the  Messiah,  the  promised  Seed ;  Is.  Ixiv.  6 ;  the 
ceremonial  law,  in  its  sacrifices  and  ablutions,  typi- 
fied Him  who,  in  purpose  and  effect,  was  "  the  Lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  and  illus- 
trated, to  believers,  the  manner  of  their  pardon  and 
cleansing  through  his  precious  blood  ; r  and  the  ju- 
dicial law,  in  its  statutes  and  judgments,  was  to  them, 
as  a  nation,  an  appropriate  directory  in  all  their  ci- 
vil procedings. 8 

The  law,  too,  like  an  inheritance  in  a  family, 
was  given  to  the  congregation  of  Jacob  in  perpet- 
uum,  for  ever,  that  is,  to  descend  with  them  from 
generation  to  generation,  till  the  coming  of  the  Mes- 
siah. *  In  this  sense  the  ceremonies  and  statutes  of 
it,  were  to  be  in  force  for  ever"  * 

rPsal.  xxxii.  1,2.  Rom.  iv.  6—8.  Heb.  xiii.  20,  21.  Rev. 
xiii.  8.  8  Exo.  xxi.  1 ,  <fcc.  «  Gal.  iii.  19,  20.  u  Exo.  xii.  14,  24. 
xxix.  28.  Numb,  xviii.  19. 

*  ohy  or  oSij?  61am  (which  our  translators  have  sometimes 
rendered  of  old,  of  long  time,  &c.  but  most  frequently  for  ever 
or  everlasting)  is  from  oSy  3.1am  to  hide  or  conceal,  and  denotes 
duration  hidden  or  concealed  from  man,  whether  past  or  future, 
and  whether  finite,  indefinite,  or  infinite.  See  Buxtorf,  Taylor, 
and  Parkhurst.  The  word  that  generally  answers  to  it  in  the 
LXX.  and  in  the  N.  T.  is  atuv  or  its  derivative  atwiov ;  the  former 
of  which  is  equivalent  to  act  »v  always  being,  and  the  latter  is,  in 
our  version,  commonly  rendered  by  everlasting  or  eternal  See 
Trommius,  Henry  Stephens,  and  Leigh ;  also  Hedericus,  Schre- 
vlius,  Parkhurst,  Eioing  and  Jones. 

These  words,  therefore,  and  their  versions  for  ever  and  ever- 
lasting, as  they  occur  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  denote  duration  as 
various  as  the  subjects  to  which  they  are  applied.  As — I.  The 


8ER.  V.]  AINT    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  183 

Moreover,  the  law  might  be  called  the  inheritance 
of  Israel,  because  to  their  observance  of  it,  their 
inheritance  was  annexed  ;  that  is,  their  entrance 
into  Canaan  and  their  continuance  and  prosperity 
there  were  promised  on  condition  of  their  legal 
obedience.  * 

Such  I  conceive  to  be  the  literal  meaning  of  the 

whole,  or  the  remaining  duration  of  a  man's  natural  life.  Exo. 
xxi.  6.  1  Sam.  i.  22.  Comp.  ver.  28  and  chap,  xxvii.  12  ;  also 
Luke  xx.  34. — 2.  The  duration  of  the  Jewish  dispensation. 
Gen.  xvii.  13.  Exo.  xxvii.  21. — 3.  The  duration  of  what  will  last 
to  the  end  of  the  present  world  Gen.  xlix.  26.  Rev.  xiv.  6. 
Hence — 4.  The  duration  of  the  world  itself.  Eccl.  i.  4.  Matt, 
xxviii.  20. 

Nevertheless — 5.  These  words  also  denote  infinite  duration. 
This  is  placed  beyond  dispute ;  seeing  that  they  are  often  used 
to  express  the  duration  of  the  Being  and  perfections  of  God  him- 
self. Exo.  xv.  18.  Deut.  xxxii.  40.  xxxiii.  27.  Is.  xl.  28. 
Matt.  vi.  13.  Acts  xv.  18.  Eph.  iii.  11.  Rom.  xvi.  26.  1  Tim. 
i.  xvii.  Such,  too,  must  certainly  be  their  meaning  when  used  to 
denote  duration  after  the  Great  day  of  Judgment.  For — 1.  That 
will  be  the  last  day;  John  vi.  39,  40,  44,  54,  xi.  24.  With  that 
day,  therefore,  time,  with  all  its  revolutions  and  measurements, 
must  for  ever  cease,  when  no  duration  can  follow,  but  that  of  vast 
eternity.  And — 2.  On  that  great  day  will  take  place,  the  last 
Judgment;  John  xii.  48.  Acts  xvii.  31,  and  Jude,  ver.  6;  and 
which,  on  this  account,  is  called  eternal  Judgment ;  Heb.  vi.  2. 
The  decisions  of  that  Judgment,  therefore,  and,  by  consequence, 
the  respective  portions  of  the  righteous  and  of  the  wicked,  to  be 
thereby  determined,  will  necessarily  be  final  and  irrevocable,  and 
therefore  eternal.  And  how  any  who  believe  that  the  happiness 
of  the  righteous  will  be  endless,  can  believe  that  the  misery  of 
the  wicked  will  be  limited,  I  am  unable  to  conceive ;  the  two  being 
placed  in  direct  opposition — both  being  after  the  cessation  of  time 
— and  the  duration  of  each  being  expressed  by  the  same  word, 
both  in  Hebrew  and  in  Greek.  Dan.  xii.  2.  Matt.  xxv.  46. 
Comp.  John  v.  28,  29.  See  the- note,  p.  172,  and  Ser.  ii.  p.  71, 
wNum.  xxxii.  11.  Is.  i.  19,  20. 


184  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.    V. 

text. — But  there  is  also,  in  every  part  of  it,  a  typical 
meaning,  and  which  we  must  not  overlook. 

First,  Moses,  as  a  law-giver,  was  a  type  of  Christ, 
of  whom  believers  are  taught  to  say,  The  Lord  is  our 
law-giver.  Is.  xxxiii.  22.  He  hath  given  us  a  law,  not 
from  Sinai  but  from  Zion ;  nor  is  it,  like  that  of 
Moses,  a  law  of  works,  but  a  law  of  faith  ;  the  rule 
according  to  which  God  justifies  sinners  by  faith  in 
Christ,  without  the  deeds  of  the  laic,  Rom.  iii.  27,  28. 
This  law  is  none  other  than  the  gospel,  the  tor  ah, 
the  doctrine  of  Christ,  for  which  it  was  foretold,  the 
isles  of  the  Gentiles  should  wait.* 

These  two  dispensations  are  clearly  contradis- 
tinguished, by  the  two  eminent  persons  through 
whom  respectively  they  came :  "  The  law,"  the  legal 
dispensation,  "was  given  through  (/«*)  Moses,  but 
grace  and  truth  came  through  (JW)  JESUS  CHRIST." 
John.  i.  17.  "By  grace  is  meant  the  absolute  favor 
of  God,  by  which  he  grants  to  believers  in  Christ, 
the  free,  and  full,  and  everlasting  remission  of  all 
their  sins  of  nature  and  life,  which  were  against 
the  moral  law,  and  for  which  they  were  condemn- 
ed by  it;y  and  by  truth  is  meant  the  true  and 
satisfactory  atonement  made  by  Christ  for  the  sins  of 
the  elect,  corresponding  to  all  the  typical  sacrifices 
of  the  ceremonial  law,  offered  for  national  Israel. z 
The  latter,  indeed,  may  also  include  the  verification 
of  all  the  promises  and  prophesies  respecting  the 
incarnation,  life,  and  death  of  Christ,  and  respecting 
his  resurrection  and  glorification. a 

x  Is.  xlii.  4.  y  Rom.  iv.  16.  Eph.  ii.  8.  Gal.  iii.  22.  Jer.  xxxi. 
33.  34.  Heb.  viii.  12.  z  Heb.  ix.  13,  14.  26.  x.  1—14.  a  Micah 
v.  2.  Matt.  ii.  5,  6.  Is.  vii.  14.  Luke  i.  34,  35.  Matt.  v.  17.x  ii.  40- 
Psal.  Ixviii.  18.  Luke  xxiv.  50,  51.  Eph.  iv.  8—12. 


SER.    V.]          AN    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  185 

Both  dispensations,  it  is  true,  came  from  the  same 
authority :  the  law  was  the  law  of  God;  Neh.  x.  28 ; 
and  the  gospel  is  the  gospel  of  God,  Rom.  i.  1.  And 
accordingly,  as  Moses  constantly  referred  to  God 
for  the  authority  of  the  law,  so  did  Christ  for  the 
authority  of  the  gospel.  Hence,  when  the  Jews, 
taking  him  to  be  a  mere  man,  and  knowing  that  he 
had  not  been  bred  a  scholar,  marveled  at  his  learning, 
he,  to  suggest  to  them,  that  his  knowledge  was  not  ac- 
quired, and  that  he  had  not,  like  their  doctors,  learn- 
ed from  men  what  he  delivered,  replied,  My  doctrine 
is  not  mine  but  his  that  sent  me;  for  though,  as  a 
divine  person,  he  was  concerned  equally  with  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  devising  the  plan  of 
salvation  which  is  reported  in  the  gospel ;  yet  as  in 
his  official  capacity,  he  acted  under  a  commission 
received  from  the  Father,  the  gospel,  which  in  this 
capacity  he  delivered,  was  emphatically  the  doctrine 
of  the  Father  who  had  sent  him.b 

That  Moses,  in  regard  to  the  authority  by  which  he 
acted,  was  a  type  of  Christ,  will  farther  appear  by 
the  following  considerations.  Moses,  however  eleva- 
ted in  his  station,  was  constantly,  in  his  public  as 
well  as  private  capacity,  controlled  by  the  will  of  God. c 
So  Christ ;  for  though,  by  nature,  he  is  the  Son  of 
God,  and  therefore,  in  essense,  will  and  purpose,  ONE 
with  the  Father-/  yet,  in  his  official  capacity,  he  is 
the  Father's  Servant  ;e  and  accordingly,  in  his  advent 
and  in  all  he  did  and  suffered,  as  Mediator,  he  acted 
in  subordination  to 'his  Father's  will;  /  came  down 
from  heaven,  said  he,  not  to  do  mine  own  will,  that 

bJohnvii.  15,  16.  cExo.  iii.  14—16.  xix.  21—25.  xxxii.  7, 
11,  33,  34.  xxxiv,  1,  27.  Lev.  i.  1.  Num.  i.  1.  Deut.  xxxii.  48— 
52.  d  Matt.  iii.  17.  John  x.  30,  e  Is.  xlii.  1.  Philip,  ii.  6 — S. 


186  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SEK.  T. 

is,  separately  and  only,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent 
me;f  which,  nevertheless,  was  also  his  own  will;  it 
being  what  he  had  voluntarily  covenanted  to  do,  and 
what  he  greatly  delighted  in.g  Again,  as  Moses  was 
subject  to  the  ordinances  of  the  law,  which  he  deliver- 
ed ;  so,  as  man,  and  to  set  an  example  to  his  disciples, 
Christ  was  subject  to  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel, 
which  he  delivered.  In  regard  to  baptism,  he  said 
to  John,  whom  God  had  sent  to  baptize,11  Thus  it  be- 
cometh  us,  you,  as  a  pattern  to  all  authorized  adminis- 
trators of  this  ordinance,  and  myself,  as  a  pattern  to 
all  the  qualified  subjects  of  it,  to  fulfil  all  righteous- 
ness-, not  justifying  righteousness;  for  this  Christ 
fulfilled  alone;  but  the  righteousness  of  practical 
obedience  to  God's  revealed  precepts.1  And  as  Moses, 
with  his  brethren,  partook  of  the  paschal  Supper,  so 
Christ,  with  his  disciples,  partook  of  the  eucharistical 
Supper. k 

We  must,  however,  not  omit  to  notice  also  a  few 
of  the  many  instances  of  disparity  between  these 
two  law-givers.  Moses,  as  you  have  heard  already, 
.had  no  concern  in  originating  the  law  which  he 
delivered;  but  Christ,  as  the  wonderful  counseller, 
and  as  the  covenantee  of  the  elect,  was,  as  hinted  be- 
fore, concerned  with  the  Father,  in  devising  as  well 
as  in  publishing  the  plan  of  their  salvation ;  and  hence 
the  gospel,  in  which  this  plan  is  brought  to  light,  is  the 
result  and  proclamation  of  "the  counsel  of  peace  be- 
tween them  both,  Zech.  vi.  13 ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  freely  revealing  and  applying  it,  is  likened  to  "  a 
pure  river  of  water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal  preceding 
out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb."  Rev. 

f  John  vi.  38.  John  x.  18.     *  Psal.  xl.  7—10    h  John  i.  6,  33, 
34.     l  Matt.  iii.  15.     k  Matt,  xxvi  26,  27. 


SER.    V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO   ISRAEL  187 

xxii.  1.  John  xv.  26  and  xvi.  14,  15.  Moreover, 
though  Christ  and  Moses  were  both  under  the 
law,  as  a  covenant  of  works,  yet  they  were  un- 
der it  in  very  different  respects.  Moses  was  un- 
der it  of  necessity,  but  Christ  by  his  voluntary 
consent.  Moses,  like  every  other  child  of  Adam, 
was  under  the  law  merely  for  himself,  and  if  his  obe- 
dience to  it  had  been  perfect,  he  could  thereby  have 
secured  none  but  himself  from  its  penalty ;  Psal.  xlix. 
7,  8.  but  Christ  was  made  under  it  as  the  Surety  and 
Substitute  of  all  the  elect,  they  being  represented  in 
him  ;  and  whom,  therefore,  by  his  obedience  and 
death,  he  redeemed  from  its  curse.  He  was  made 
under  the  law,  that  he  inight  redeem  them  that  were 
under  the  law.  Gal.  iv.  4.  5. 

Secondly,  the  congregation  of  Jacob,  to  which 
Moses  delivered  the  law,  was  a  type  of  the  con- 
gregation of  Christ,  to  which  he  delivered  the  gospel. 
The  analogy,  however,  between  the  two,  I  shall  notice 
at  present,  only  in  a  few  leading  particulars. 

The  congregation  of  spiritual  Israelites,  like  that 
of  the  national  Israelites,  constantly  consists  of 
those  who  had  a  being  in  their  progenitor  before 
their  visibility  in  the  world.  For,  as  the  congrega- 
tion of  Jacob  had  a  representative  and  seminal  being 
in  him,  before  their  involvment  in  Egyptian  bondage,, 
the  elect  had  a  similar  being  in  Christ,  before  they 
fell  in  Adam  and  under  the  bondage  of  the  broken 
covenant  of  works.  They  had  a  representative  being 
in  HIM  "  according  as  they  were  chosen  in  him  ;"  and 
a  seminal  being  in  HIM,  as  all  that  grace  which,  in 
the  order  of  time,  gives  them  their  spiritual  existence 
and  character,  was  given  to  them,  in  HIM,  as  their 
federal  and  vital  HEAD  ;  and  both,  before  the  world 


188  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V. 

began.  Eph.  i.  4,  and  2  Tim.  i.  9.  This  grace 
when  communicated,  is  that  seed  which  remaineth 
in  them,  and  in  consequence  of  which  they  cannot 
live  in  sin.  1  John.  iii.  9,  10. 

The  congregation  of  Jacob  consisted  of  his  natu- 
ral posterity;  and  the  congregation  of  Christ  consists 
of  his  spiritual  posterity ;  with  reference  to  whom 
he  is  called  The  everlasting  Father ;  they  having 
had  a  seminal  being  in  him  from  everlasting,  and 
he  sustaining  this  relation  to  them,  unto  everlasting. 
Seels,  ix.  6  and  Heb.  ii.  13.  And,  as  the  congrega- 
tion of  Jacob  were  his  descendants  naturally,  by  his 
twelve  sons,  the  congregation  of  Christ  under  the  New 
Testament,  are  his  descendants,  mystically,  by  his 
twelve  apostles  ;  they  having  all  received  his  Spirit, 
according  to  the  gospel  which  the  apostles  preached. 
This  is  evident  from  the  mediatorial  prayer  of  Christ ; 
in  which,  having  prayed  for  his  twelve  apostles,  he 
added,  "  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them 
also  which  shall  believe  on  me  through  their  word." 
John  xvii.  20.  Hence,  to  signify  how  the  doctrine 
and  memory  of  the  apostles  should  be  perpetuated, 
the  church,  considered  either  in  her  latter-day- 
prosperity,  or  in  her  heavenly  glory,  and  perhaps  in 
both,  is  said  to  have  twelve  foundations,  and  in  them 
the  names  of  the  twelve  apostles  of  the  Lamb.  Rev. 
xxi.  14.  Comp.  Eph.  ii.  20.  Nor  must  we  forget, 
that  Jacob,  having  passed  over  Jordan  with  his  staff, 
became  two  bands;  for  so  Christ,  having  passed 
over  the  Jordan  of  death  on  the  staff  of  his  cross,* 
thereupon  united  believing  Gentiles  with  believing 
Jews,  in  one  common  household,  the  gospel-church. 
"  For  he  is  our  peace,  who  hath  made  both  one,  and 
hath  broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition  be- 
*  McEwen  on  the  types. 


SER.  V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  189 

tween  us,"  meaning  the  ceremonial  law.     See  Eph. 
ii.  14—22,  and  iii.  6. 

Once  more.  As  it  was  to  the  congregation  of 
Jacob,  who  were  called  out  of  Egyptian  bondage, 
that  Moses  delivered  the  law  ;  so  it  was  to  the  con- 
gregation of  the  disciples,  who  were  called  by  grace 
out  of  the  world  and  from  under  the  bondage  of  sin 
and  Satan,  that  Christ  delivered  the  gospel.  Of 
them  it  was,  that  he  said  to  his  heavenly  Father, 
"  I  have  given  unto  them  the  words  which  thou  gav- 
est  me;  and  they  have  received  them,  and  have 
known  surely  that  I  came  out  from  thee,  and  they 
have  believed  that  thou  didst  send  me."  John  xvii. 
8.  And,  as  the  legal  dispensation,  though  the  means 
of  some  information  to  the  Gentiles,  was  neverthe- 
less intrusted  with  national  Israel,  to  whom  the 
Oracles  of  God  were  committed ;  Rom.  iii.  2 ;  so, 
although  the  gospel  is  to  be  preached  in  all  the 
world,  and  to  every  creature ;  yet,  as  a  deposit,  a 
charge,  it  is  committed  to  spiritual  Israel,  the  gos- 
pel-church. Accordingly,  it  is  not  out  of  "  the  world 
that  lieth  in  wickedness,"  but  "out  of  Zion,  the 
perfection  of  beauty,"  that  "  God  hath  shined,"  in 
the  dispensation  of  the  gospel.  Psal.  1.  2.  Here, 
by  grace  and  gifts,  he  qualifies  men  for  the  gospel- 
ministry  ;  and  who,  being  recognised  and  sanctioned 
by  the  church,  as  thus  qualified,  go  forth,  riot  from 
the  world,  but  into  the  world.  Out  of  Zion,  said 
the  evangelical  prophet,  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and 
the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem.  Is.  ii.  3. 
Compare  Luke  xxiv.  47,  and  Acts  i.  4.  No  man, 
therefore,  without  a  regular  standing  in  some  branch 
of  the  gospel-Zion,  and  an  official  License  therefrom, 
to  preach  the  gospel,  can  be  duly  authorized  for  this 

25 


J90  THE    MOSAIC    LAW  [SER.  V. 

sacred  work.  The  same  also  appears  from  Eze- 
kieVs  vision  ;  for  the  gospel  and  the  Holy  Spirit  ac- 
companying it,  seem  evidently  to  be  designed  by 
the  waters  which  he  saw  issuing,  not  from  the  desert 
and  the  sea  to  the  sanctuary,  but  from  the  sanctuary 
to  the  desert  and  the  sea  ;  and,  as  wherever  those 
waters  came,  every  thing  that  had  life  was  caused 
to  live;  so  wherever  the  gospel  comes,  accompanied 
by  the  Spirit's  influence,  all  that  have  life  in  Christ, 
are  made  partakers  of  it  in  their  souls,  and  those 
who,  being  subjects  of  grace  before,  are  fallen  into 
a  backslid  en  and  languishing  state,  are  revived  and 
strengthened.  For,  as  at  Antioch,  under  the  preach- 
ing of  the  apostles,  "  as  many  as  were  ordained  un- 
to eternal  life  believed  ;"  Acts  xiii.  48  ;  so,  under  the 
ministry  of  the  same  gospel,  it  has  constantly  been 
and  will  continue  to  be,  till  all  the  elect  shall 
"  obtain  the  salvation  which  is  "  in  Christ  Jesus  ;" 
2  Tim.  ii.  10 ;  and,  according  to  prophecy,  They 
that  dwell  under  his  shadow  shall  return,  that 
is,  from  their  backslidings,  and  shall  revive  as  the 
corn,  and  grow  as  the  vine.  Hosea  xiv.  7.  But, 
(dreadful  to  think  !)  the  non-elect,  whether  profane 
sinners,  or  formal  professors,  like  the  miry  places 
and  marshes  in  the  prophet's  vision,  shall  not  be 
healed.  See  Ezk.  xlvii.l — 11,  and  compare  John 
x,  26,  arid  Jer.  xvii.  5,  6. 

Nor  must  we  forget, 

Thirdly,  That  the  law  itself,  as  given  to  the 
congregation  of  Jacob,  was,  as  a  dispensation,  ty- 
pical of  the  gospel,  which,  as  a  dispensation,  was 
given  to  the  congregation  of  Christ,  the  New  Testa- 
ment church. 

If  the  law,  much  more  the  gospel,  like  a  valuable 


SER.V.]  AN    INHERITANCE    TO    ISRAEL.  191 

inheritance,  is  vastly  enriching  ;  it  comprehends  and 
publishes  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  Eph. 
iii.  8.  According  to  it,  the  Holy  Spirit  communi- 
cates the  riches  of  grace,  Rom.  v.  17,  and,  in  it,  re- 
veals the  riches  of  glory;  2  Cor.  iv.  17.  As  it  is 
extended  among  the  nations,  it  is  the  riches  of  the 
world;  Rom.  xi.  12  ;  because  it  is  the  richest  bless- 
ing that  is  in  the  world,  the  richest  and  most  en- 
riching blessing  granted  to  any  nation.  And  rich 
indeed  is  that  person  in  whom  the  icord  of  Christ 
dwells  richly.  Col.  iii.  16. 

Again ;  as  the  law,  like  an  inheritance,  descended 
with  the  posterity  of  Jacob,  so  does  the  gospel,  with 
the  posterity  of  Christ.  It  is  emphatically  the  ever- 
lasting gospel ;  Rev.  xiv.  6 ;  and  in  it,  the  right- 
eousness of  God  is  revealed  from  faith  to  faith,  and 
his  salvation  published  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion. Rom.  i.  17,  and  Is.  li.  8.  And 

Finally,  as  an  apostle  assured  the  carnal  Jews, 
who  vainly  trusted  in  hearing  the  law  read  to  them 
in  the  Synagogue  every  sabbath-day,  that  "  not  the" 
mere  "  hearers  of  the  law,  but  the"  perfect  "  doers 
of  the  law"  (if  any  such  there  were)  should  be  jus- 
tified by  it  "  before  God;"  Rom.  ii.  13  ;  so,  let  it  be 
remembered  by  all,  that  it  is  not  those  who  merely 
hear  the  gospel,  however  constant  and  orderly  they 
may  be  in  their  attendance  upon  it,  but  those  who 
so  hear  it  as  to  live — so  hear  it,  as  to  believe  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  rejection  of  every  other 
object  of  dependence — yea,  so  hear  it,  as  to  be  ef- 
fectually taught  by  it  to  deny  themselves  of  all  un- 
godliness and  worldly  lusts,  and  to  live  soberly, 
righteously,  and  godly,  in  the  present  evil  world, 
that  are  authorized  by  the  Scriptures,  to  con- 


192  THE    MOSAIC    LAW,  &C.  [SEE.  V. 

elude  that  they  are  justified  in  the  sight  of  God. 
John  iii.  36.  Acts  xiii.  39.  Titus  ii.  11, 12.  Such  are 
those,  to  whom  the  gospel  has  come,  not  in  word 
only,  but  also  in  power  >  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
in  much  assurance ;  and  who,  in  consequence  there- 
of, have  turned  from  dumb  idols  to  serve  the  living 
and  true  God;  and,  in  faith  and  hope,  to  wait  for 
his  Son  from  heaven,  whom  he  raised  from  the 
dead,  even  Jesus  who  delivered  us  from  the  wrath 
to  come.  1  Thess.  i.  6 — 10. 


SERMON  VI. 


MOSES  WAS  KING  IX  JESHURUff. 


DEUT.  xxxiii.  5     And  he  was  king  in  Jeshuntn,  when  the  heads 
of  the   Tribes  of  Israel  were  gathered  together' 


As  in  the  preceding  verse,  Moses  speaks  of  himself 
as  a  law-giver,  so,  in  this  verse,  he  speaks  of  himself 
as  a  King ; — And  he  was  king  in  Jeshurun,  &,c. 
Under  this  title,  therefore,  I  am  now  to  treat  of  him ; 
and  in  doing  which,  accompanied  with  some  spiritual 
improvement,  I  shall  consider 

The  name  here  given  to  the  people  among  whom 
he  was  king — 

The  manner  of  his  promotion  and  reign,  as  their 
king — and 

When,  in  particular,  he  appeared  to  be  their  king. 

1.  The  name,  here  given  to  the  people  among 
whom  Moses  was  king :  "  And  he  was  king  in  Jesh- 
urun"  That  Jeshurun  is  but  another  name  for 
Israel,  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the  text  itself,  and 
which  is  confirmed  by  each  of  the  three  other  places 
in  which  only  it  occurs ;  to  wit,  in  verse  26th  of  this 
chapter — in  verse  15th  of  the  preceding  chapter — 
and  in  Is.  xliv.  2.  It  was  first  given  to  that  people, 
to  denote  what  they  had  been,  both  in  privileges  and 
in  character,  and  to  imply  their  abuse  of  the  former 


194  MOSES    WAS  [SER.  VI. 

and  their  declension  from  the  latter :  Jcshurun,  amid 
special  advantages  enjoyed,  waxed  fat,  and  kicked 
....  then  he  forsook  God  who  made  him,  and  lightly 
esteemed  the  rock  of  his  salvation,  the  MESSIAH.  Deut. 
xxxii.  15.  To  this  design,  the  signification  of  the 
name,  whether  derived  from  *w  shur  or  from  ISJT  ya- 
shar  remarkably  corresponds.  Coeceius*  followed  by 
Bp.  Patrick  and  others,  derives  it  from  ^w  shur,  the 
principal  significations  of  which,  as  may  be  seen  in 
all  our  Hebrew  Lexicons,  and  by  its  uses  in  the  Bible, 
are  to  behold  and  to  sing.\  So  derived,  this  name, 
when  given  to  Israel,  suggested 

1.  That  they  were  a  people  who  had  been  distin- 
guished by  special  visions  and  indications  of  the 
divine  presence.  Such  were  the  wonders  they 
beheld  in  Egypt  and  at  the  Red  sea.  Such  were 
the  awful  manifestations  of  the  divine  Majesty  which 
they  witnessed  at  the  giving  of  the  law  ;  when,  in  a 
thick  cloud  "  The  LORD  came  down  upon  mount 
Sinai,  upon  the  top  of  the  mount,"  and  when  they 
heard  his  voice  speaking  to  them  out  of  the  midst  of 
thejire.  And  such,  too,  were  those  seasonable  and 
marvelous  tokens  of  his  presence  and  kindness, 
which  God  favored  them  with,  during  their  subsequent 
pilgrimage ;  as,  for  instance,  in  prescribing  a  sight 
of  the  brazen  serpent,  prepared  by  his  order,  as  their 
sovereign  remedy,  when  liable  to  judicial  death,  from 
the  fatal  stings  of  the  fiery  serpents — in  giving  them 
manna  from  the  clouds,  when  suffering  with  hunger 
— in  supplying  them  with  water  from  a  smitten  rock, 
when  parched  with  thirst— and  in  sweetening  for 

*  Ultima  Mosis.     Sect.  973.        f  "W  Shur,  in  the  fut.  pi.  makes 
msr  Jeshuru,  which,  with  j  nun  paragogic.  forms  { W  Jeshurun. 


SER.  VI. J  KING    IN    JESLIURUN.  195 

them,  by  means  of  a  tree,  the  bitter  waters  other- 
wise intolerable.     See  Ser.  1.  p.  23 — 26. 

How  easy  and  appropriate  the  reference  to  spirit- 
ual Israel !  Has  not  the  church,  under  the  present 
dispensation,  been  distinguished  by  visions  and  favors, 
equally,  nay  much  more,  remarkable  and  astonish- 
ing 1  Which  of  all  the  wonders  beheld  by  ancient 
Israel,  can  bear  a  comparison  with  the  manifestation 
of  the  Son  of  God  in  our  nature — with  the  descent 
and  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost — or  with  the  progress  and  victories  of  the 
gospel  in  the  gentile  world] 

The  same  also  may  be  said  of  spiritual  Israelites 
individually.  For  "  the  eyes  of  their  understand- 
ing being  enlightened"  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  they 
have,  through  the  glass  of  the  word,  such  views  of 
God — of  his  law — of  themselves — of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ — and  of  future  glory  and  happiness,  as  the 
unregenerate  have  not,  and  in  that  state,  cannot 
receive.  It  is  written,  saith  Paul,  (alluding  to  Is. 
Ixiv.  4.)  Eyehath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have 
entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God 
hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him.  But,  adds 
he,  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us,  to  believers  in 
common  under  the  gospel,  and  eminently  to  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament,  by  his  spirit. & 

In  regard,  however,  to  the  visions  and  indications 
of  the  divine  presence  with  ancient  Israel,  there  are 
some  things  which  claim  our  more  particular  notice 
and  improvement. 

As  upon  seeing  the  wonders  wrought  in  Egypt 
and  at  the  Red  sea,  the  Israelites  "believed  the 

a  1  Cor.  ii.  9—14.     Eph.  iii.  5.     CoL  i.  26,  27. 


19(5  MOSES   WAS  SER.    VI.] 

Lord  and  his  servant  Moses  ;"b  So  the  disciples  of 
Christ,  on  beholding  the  miracles  which  he  perform- 
ed, were  convinced,  not  only  of  his  divine  mission,  but 
also  of  his  divine  sonship  ;  We  believe  and  are  sure, 
said  Peter,  that  thou  art  that  Christ,  that  Messiah 
of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  wrote,  the  son  of 
the  living  God.c  The  miracles  of  Christ,  too,  being 
recorded  by  those  who  witnessed  them,  were  inten- 
ded as  a  ground  of  faith  in  him,  to  all  generations : 
These  things,  said  John,  are  written,  that  ye  might 
believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  son  of  God ;  and 
that  believing  ye  might  have  life  through  his  name.^ 
The  manifestations,  likewise,  which  God  made  of 
himself  to  Israel,  when  he  delivered  the  law  to  them, 
are  very  instructive  to  us ;  and  particularly  in  their 
effects,  which  serve  very  aptly  to  illustrate  those  of 
the  manifestations  which  God  makes  of  himself  to 
sinners  at  their  effectual  calling.  Like  the  Israelites, 
when  they  saw  the  Majesty  and  heard  the  voice  of 
the  divine  lawgiver,  sinners  under  conviction,  realiz- 
ing the  character  of  God  and  understanding  his  re- 
quirements in  the  law,  are  filled  with  terror  and  trem- 
bling.6 And  as  the  Israelites,  shrinking  from  what 
they  saw  and  heard  at  Sinai,  "  said  to  Moses,"  their 
national  mediator,  "  Speak  thou  with  us,  and  we  will 
hear :  but  let  not  God  speak  with  us,  lest  we  die;f 
so  awakened  sinners,  unable  to  endure  the  voice  of 
God,  or  to  answer  his  demands  in  the  law,  have  re- 
course to  Jesus,  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant, 
desiring  him  to  speak  for  them,  as  their  advocate 
with  the  Father,  and  to  them,  as  their  counsellor  in 

bExo.  xiv.  31.  cJohn  vi.  69.  d  Ibid.  xx.  31—Comp. 
Exo.  xix.  9.  c  Exo.  xix.  16  and  Acts  xvi.  29.  f  Exo.  xx.  18, 
19. 


SER.    VI.]  KING    IN    JESHURUN.  197 

the  gospel;  he  only  having  the  words  of  eternal  life."8 
The  awful  manifestations,  moreover,  which  God  in 
the  law,  makes  of  himself  to  sensible  sinners,  like 
those  which  he  made  of  himself  to  the  Israelites  at 
Sinai,  are  designed  to  work,  not  their  destruction,  but 
their  conversion;  they  are  to  prove  them;  to  exhibit 
to  them  in  the  light  of  divine  purity,  their  abomina- 
tions of  heart  and  life,  and  to  show  them,  by 
the  standard  of  the  divine  law,  their  guilt  and 
condemnation.  And,  thus  instructed,  each  says,  with 
Job,  Behold  I  am  vile,  and  with  Paul,  /  through  the 
law,  that  is,  through  the  knowledge  of  it  now  re- 
ceived, am  dead  to  the  law,  to  all  hopes  of  obtaining 
justification  by  obedience  to  it.h 

Thus  circumstanced,  sinners  realize  their  need,  and 
thereupon,  receive  the  enjoyment,  of  all  those  bless- 
ings, in  a  way  of  grace,  that  were  typified  by  the  bless- 
ings conferred  on  the  Israelites,  in  a  way  of  miracle. 
Conscious  of  their  liability  to  eternal  death,  the  just 
penalty  annexed  to  the  broken  covenant  of  works,  their 
views  are  directed,  not  to  a  brazen  serpent  raised  on  a 
pole,  but  to  the  antitype  thereof,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
exposed  on  the  cross,  as  their  substitute,  and  exhibi- 
ted in  the  gospel  as  their  remedy ;  and  believing,  feel 
the  healing  virtue  of  his  atoning  blood,  and  say,  with 
an  apostle,  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of 
the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  ns.{  Realiz- 
ing, like  the  prodigal,  that  they  had  been  living 
on  husks,  and  hungering  for  spiritual  sustenance, 
they  receive,  not  manna  from  the  clouds,  but  the 

g  Exo.  xx.  18,  19.  John  vi.  68. — Comp.  Psal.  Ixxx.  17, 18. 
h  Exo.  xxl  20.  Job  xl.  4.  Gal.  ii.  19.  *  John  iii.  14,  15.  xii.  32, 
33.  Gal.  iii.  13. 

26 


198  MOSES   WAS  [SER.    VI. 

true  bread  from  heaven — even  Christ  himself,  who 
is  the  bread  of  life,  and  on  whom,  as  such,  be- 
lievers live.k  Bewailing  their  vileness  and  thirsting 
for  comfort,  they  are  led  by  faith,  not  to  a  smitten 
rock,  but  to  a  crucified  Jesus,  in  whom  they  behold  a 
fountain  opened  for  sin  and  undcanness,  and  drink 
the  consolations  of  pardon,  justification,  peace  with 
God,  and  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  all  flowing,  as  so 
many  streams,  from  that  fountain.1  And  though,  in 
the  course  of  their  pilgrimage,  they  find  many  bitter 
waters,  bitter  trials,  arising  from  indwelling  sin — the 
temptations  of  Satan — the  perfidy  of  hypocrites — 
the  reproaches  of  the  world,  and  the  cares  of  life  : 
yet  all  are  sweetened,  at  least  rendered  tolerable,  by 
the  tree  of  the  cross,  that  is,  by  the  doctrine  of  HIM 
who  died  upon  that  tree.  "  For  as  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  abound  in  us,  so  our  consolation  also  abound- 
eth  by  Christ."™  In  the  light,  too,  of  this  doctrine, 
we  enjoy  a  glimpse  of  our  celestial  inheritance,  in 
comparison  of  which  the  sufferings  of  our  pilgrimage 
dwindle  into  nothing.  "  I  reckon,"  said  "  Paul,  that 
the  sufferings  of  the  present  time,  are  not  worthy 
to  be  compared  with  the  glory  which  shall  be  reveal- 
ed in  us." n  Moreover,  by  the  same  light,  we  are  en- 
abled to  see,  that  all  our  present  sufferings,  and 
which,  compared  with  our  deserts  and  the  endless  mi- 
series of  the  wicked,  we  esteem  small  and  moment- 
ary, are  instrumental  in  ripening  us  for  future  bless- 
edness :  "  For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  fora 
moment,  workcth  for  us"  (as  it  worketh  us  for)  "  a 

k  John  vi.  32,  33,  48.  Gal.  ii.  20.  !  Zech.  xiii.  1.  Eph.  i.  7. 
Rom.  Hi.  24.  v.  1,2,  m  2  Cor.  i.  5.  2  Thess.  ii.  16.  n  Rom. 
viii.  18. 


SER.    VI.]  KING    IN   JESHURUN.  199 

far  more  excecling  and  eternal  weight  of  glory  :  while 
we  look  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  things 
which  are  not  seen :  for  the  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal :  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal."11  But  to  procede. 

The  name  in  question,  as  derived  from  w  shur, 
which  also  signifies  to  sing,  suggested, 

2.  That  Israel,  to  whom  it  was  given,  were  a  singing, 
a  rejoicing  people,  or  that  they  had  reason  to  be  such. 
And  what  people  on  earth  have  sung  and  rejoiced  so 
much,  or  have  had  so  much  cause  and  so  many  occa- 
sions for  singing  and  rejoicing,  as  spiritual  Israeli 

What  a  sweet  and  expressive  song  of  thanksgiving 
to  God,  did  the  Israelites  sing  when,  through  the 
Red  sea,  they  were  brought  out  of  Egypt,  and  saw 
their  enemies  dead  on  the  shore  !  See  it  upon  record 
in  the  xvth  chapter  of  Exodus.  Yet  much  more  rap- 
turous is  the  song  of  young  converts,  when  delivered 
from  the  bondage  of  the  law,  of  sin,  and  of  Satan, 
and  enabled  to  see  that  all  their  spiritual  enemies 
are  virtually  dead  through  the  death  of  Christ.0  At 
every  recollection  of  this  great  deliverance,  each, 
like  David,  says,  "  I  waited  patiently  for  the  LORD  ; 
and  he  inclined  unto  me,  and  heard  my  cry.  He 
brought  me  up  also  out  of  the  horrible  pit,  out  of 
the  miry  clay,  and  set  my  feet  upon  a  rock  and 
established  my  goings.  And  he  hath  put  a  new  song 
into  my  mouth,"  one  that  I  could  never  cordially  sing 
before,  "  even  praise  unto  our  God."p 

In  that  inspired  song  recorded  in  Deuteronomy 

a  2  Cor.  iv.  17,  18.        «Rom.  viii.  1,  2,  3,  4,  32—39.     Col  i. 
12,  14,  ii.  13—15.        P  Psal.  xl.  1—3. 


200  MOSES    WAS  [SER.    VI. 

xxxii,  the  Israelites  recounted  and  celebrated  the 
mercies  and  blessings  they  had  received  from  God, 
and  expressed  their  hopes  in  him,  for  those  which 
they  might  need  in  time  to  come.  Nor  are  spiritual 
Israelites  less  grateful  or  less  hopeful.  The  Psalm- 
ist, speaking  of  them,  says  to  the  LORD,  "  They  shall 
abundantly  utter  the  memory  of  thy  great  goodness, 
and  shall  sing  of  thy  righteousness.  They  shall 
speak  of  the  glory  of  thy  kingdom,  and  talk  of  thy 
power."  And,  to  animate  their  hope  and'confidence 
in  God,  he  adds,  "  the  LORD  shall  reign  for  ever,  even 
thy  God,  O  Zion,  unto  all  generations.  Praise  ye  the 
LORD."" 

The  Israelites  indeed  had  their  troubles  ;  yet  even 
these  they  turned  into  a  song.  See  the  cxxxviith 
Psalm.  And  much  more  reason  have  spiritual  Is- 
raelites to  do  likewise.  We,  it  is  true,  have  many 
afflictions  and  much  tribulation ;  yet  also  many  com- 
forts and  many  occasions  for  singing.  Our  afflictions, 
however  numerous,  amount  to  no  evidence  against  our 
gracious  state  : — "  Many  are  the  afflictions  of  the 
righteous,  (mark  that :)  nor  is  a  righteous  man  forsa- 
ken in  his  afflictions  ;  "but the  LORD  delivereth  him 
out  of  them  all."r  Blessed  ground  of  hope  !  "  In  the 
world,"  said  Christ  to  his  disciples,  "ye  shall  have 
tribulation."  Sad  truth!  But  notice  what  he  adds — 
"Be  of  good  cheer  ;  I  have  overcome  the  world."8  "We 
must,"  saith  an  apostle,  "  through  much  tribulation 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."*  Observe  the  word 
musty — for  though  we  must  pass  through  much 

*  Psal.  cxlv.  7,  11  and  cxlvi.  10.  See  also  Philip,  iv.  19. 
*  Psal.  xxxiv.  19.  "  John  xvi.  33.  *  Acts  xiv.  22. 


SER.    VI.]  KING    IN   JESHURUN.  201 

tribulation  by  the  way,  we  must  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  God.  These  things  considered,  well  may 
we,  my  believing  hearers,  like  the  afflicted  Israel- 
ites, turn  our  sorrows  into  songs  ;  and,  like  Paul, 
"take  pleasure  in  infirmities,  in  reproaches,  in  ne- 
cessities, in  persecutions,  in  distresses,  for  Christ's 
sake.""  Better  times  await  us  ;  therefore,  "Rejoicing 
in  hope,"  let  us  "  be  patient  in  tribulation  ;"v  and,  as 
the  grounds  of  our  hope,  and  the  sources  of  our  com- 
fort, are  always  the  same,  let  us  "rejoice  evermore," 
and  "  in  every  thing  give  thanks. "w  This  is  to  sing 
of  judgment,  as  well  as  of  mercy.*  Nor  shall  such 
singers  ever  be  wanting  in  Zion  :  Singers  shall  be 
• there  ;y  even  singing  men  and  singing  women* 

Others,  however,  among  whom  are  Vitringa, 
Parkhurst,  and  Dr.  Adam  Clark,  derive  Jeshurun 
from  IBT  yashar,  right,  straight,  plain,  &c.*  And  if 
so  derived,  this  name  might  be  given  to  Israel. 

1.  To  signify  to  them,  what  they  ought  to  be,  to 
answer  to  their  distinction  and  profession,  namely, 
an  upright,  a  righteous,  and  a  plain  people.  And 
such,  to  comport  with  their  profession  and  their  priv- 
ileges, ought  the  members  of  the  gospel-church  to 
be.  This  church  is  the  household  of  faith  :a  and, 
therefore,  none  but  believers  are  entitled  to  a  place 
in  it.  "  False  brethren,"  it  is  true,  have  in  all  ages 
"crept  in  unawares  :"  but  when  discovered,  like  the 

uNiim.  xxi.  17.  2  Chron.  xx.  17—22.  2  Cor.  xii.  10.  TRom. 
xii.  12.  w  1  thess.  v.  16,  18.  x  Psal.  ci.  1.  y  Psal.  Ixxxvii.  7. 
«  2  Chron.  xxxv.  25. 

*  Hence  the  adjectives  1BT  yeshar,  upright,  Prov.  xxix.  27. 
onir  yeshareem,  righteous,  Num.  xxiii.  10,  and  WD,  meeshore, 
plain,  Psal.  xxvii.  11.  a  Gal.  vi.  10. 


202  MOSES    WAS  [SER.    TI. 

man  who  intruded  himself  among  the  Lord's  guests, 
not  having  on  a  wedding-garment,  the  imputed  right- 
eousness of  Christ,  received  and  trusted  in  by  faith, 
they  are  to  be  bound  "hand  and  foot,"  to  be  de- 
prived of  all  the  privileges  of  the  family,  "  and  cast 
into  outer  darkness  ;  there  shall  be  weeping  and 

gnashing  of  teeth."* 

<r 

*  Matt.  xxii.  12, 13.  That  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  illustra- 
ted in  the  parable  referred  to,  is  the  gospel  dispensation,  all  com- 
mentators are  agreed.  Primarily  ^therefore,  the  coming  of  the  king  to 
inspect  the  guests,  and  his  order  for  the  binding  and  ejection  of  the 
intruder,  fitly  represent  the  notice  which  God  takes  of  hypocrites  in 
the  gospel-church — his  influence  in  bringing  them  to  light — and 
the  authority  which  he  has  given  to  his  churcli,  in  a  way  of  disci- 
pline, to  put  them  away.  Matt,  xviii.  15—17.  1  Cor.  v.  13.  In 
this  event,  too,  commonly  "  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth"  occur 
— weeping  on  the  part  of  the  church,  at  seeing  any  of  her  members 
prove  to  be  of  such  character,  and  "  gnashing  of  teeth,"  on  the 
part  of  the  excluded  hypocrites  and  their  ungodly  associates.  Re- 
spect also,  may  be  had  to  God's  coming  at  certain  times,  to  judge 
his  church  in  a  way  of  Providence  ;  when,  by  severe  trials,  he  awa- 
kens his  saints  from  their  slumbers,  reclaims  them  from  their  wan- 
derings, and  effects  a  separation  between  them  and  graceless  pro- 
fessors, who,  under  such  visitations,  become  manifest.  See  1  Pet. 
iv.  17, 18.  ICor.  xi  19,  32.  Eph.  v.  14.  Rev.  iii.  19—22.  Matt, 
xiii.  21.  Ultimately,  however,  the  parable  under  consideration,  no 
doubt,  regards  the  final  separation  of  all  false  professors  from  the 
kingdom  of  Christ.  Compare  Matt.  xiii.  36 — 43. 

Adverting  to  this  parable,  some  have  taken  occasion  to  say,  If  the 
doctrine  of  election,  or  that  of  particular  redemption  were  true,  a 
sinner  found  without  a  wedding-garment  would  not  need  to  be 
speechless,  but  might  justly  excuse  himself,  by  saying  to  God,  No 
such  garment  was  prepared  for  me.  Shocking  presumption  !  But 
it  should  be  recollected,  that  the  question  the  king  puts  to  the  man 
in  that  condition,  is  not — Why  hast  thou  not  on  a  wedding- gar- 
ment? But,  "Friend,"  (or  companion,  as  Era^f,  the  word  used, 
properly  signifies,)  "  how  earnest  thou  in  hither" — how  couldst  thou 


SER.    VI.]  KING    IN   JESHURUN.  203 

None,  however,  are  clothed  in  the  wedding-gar- 
ment, that  is,  none  have  a  justifying  faith  in  Christ, 
but  the  regenerate  ;  and  such  are  not  only  righteous, 
in  his  righteousness  imputed  to  them,  but  upright 
also,  through  his  grace  implanted  in  them.  They  are 
upright  in  their  hearts.*  They  are  the  assembly  of 
the  upright*  They  possess  an  integrity  of  heart,  both 
toward  God  and  man,  which  they  cannot  abandon.6 
They  are  more  excellent  than  their  neighbor  s,{  and 
therefore,  the  excellent  of  the  earth.5  Like  Jacob, 
they  are  plaint  that  is,  honest  and  undisguised,11  and 
like  Nathanael,  Israelites  indeed,  in  whom  there  is  no 
guile,  noallowe  1  fraudulence-or  dissimulation.1 

But,  admitting  the  name  under  consideration  to 
have  been  thus  derived,  it  must  be  evident  that  God 
gave  it  to  Israel. 

2.  To  remind  them  of  what  they  had  been  in  the 

presume  to  intrude  thyself  among  the  guests,  "  not  having  on  a 
wedding-garment  V3  See  ver.  12.  The  members  of  the  church 
are  companions  of  Christ  and  one  another.  Cant.  viii.  13.  Hence 
hypocrites,  being  among  the  members  of  the  Church,  are 
called  companions  also.  Cant.  i.  7.  Compare  Matt.  xx.  13. 
and  xxvi.  50,  in  each  of  which  places  the  same  compella- 
tion  is  given  to  a  similar  character.  The  design,  therefore,  in 
this  part  of  the  parable  before  us,  is  not  to  illustrate  the  sin  of  unbe- 
lief, but  that  of  persons  making  a  hypocritical  profession  of  religion 
and  thereby  getting  into  the  visible  church,  while  they  are  not 
regenerated,  and  consequently  have  no  true  faith  in  the  justifying 
righteousness  of  Christ ;  also  to  remind  them,  that  however  they 
may,  for  a  time  at  least,  deceive  the  church,  they  cannot  deceive 
God,  who  knows  their  hearts,  and  who,  (if  he  do  not  renew  them,) 
will  most  assuredly,  sooner  or  later,  separate  them  from  among 
his  children,  and  consign  them  to  hell.  See  Luke  xiii.  23 — 28. 

c  Psal.  cxxv.  4.  d  Ibid.  cxi.  1.  e  Job  xxvii.  5.  t  Prov. 
xii.  26.  *  Psal.  xvi.  3.  h  Gen.  xxv.  27.  '  John  i.  47. 


204  MOSES   WAS  [SER.    VI. 

days  of  their  fathers,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  who 
were  righteous,  upright,  and  faithful  men,  and 
through  whose  example  and  influence,  the  profession 
of  faith  in  the  promised  seed  had  been  preserved,  and 
the  prevalence  of  iniquity  suppressed  in  the  nation. 
That  a  great  declension  had  occurred  among  them, 
not  only  in  practice  but  also  in  doctrine,  was,  as  notic- 
ed before,  plainly  intimated  when  this  name  was  first 
given  to  them  :  Jeshurun  had  waxed  fat,  and  kicked 
— he  had  forsaken  God  who  made  him,  and  hence 
had  lightly  esteemed  the  rock  of  his  salvation,  the 
promised  MESSiAH.k  Let  this  remind  Christians  of 
the  sad  decline  which  has  occurred  in  the  gospel 
church.  In  the  days  of  her  fathers,  the  apostles,  she 
was  a  city  set  on  a  hill — Jerusalem,  then  above  and 
free — and  like  a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  having 
the  moon,  the  world,  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her 
head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars.  But  alas  !  how  is  the 
fine  gold  become  dim  !  How  are  her  doctrines,  or- 
dinances, and  discipline,  corrupted  by  the  traditions 
of  men  !  And,  to  what  a  lamentable  degree  has  she 
acquired  the  likeness  of  a  worldly  sanctuary  ! 

In  Jeshurun,  however,  Moses  was  king,  that  is, 
chief  ruler  under  God  ;  and  we  precede  to  consider, 

II.  The  manner  of  his  promotion  and  of  his  reign 
or  administration  as  their  king. 

First,  The  manner  of  his  promotion.  And  he 
was  king  in  Jeshurun — not  by  right  of  succession,  for 
he  had  no  predecessor  in  office :  nor  by  popular 
election,  no  reference  being  had,  in  the  case,  to  the 
will  of  the  people  ;  but,  in  an  extraordinary  way,  by 
the  sovereign  choice  and  appointment  of  God: 

k  Deut.  xxxii.  15.    i  Matt.  v.  14.    Gal.  iv.  26.     Rev.  xii.  1. 


SER.    VI.]  KliNU    L\    JESMITRUN.  205 

from  whom,  accordingly,  he  received  his  commis- 
sion :  This  Moses  whom  they,  his  national  breth- 
ren, at  first,  refused  saying,  Who  made  thee  a 
ruler  and  a  judge  ?  the  same  did  God  send  to  be  a 
ruler  and  a  deliverer,  by  the  hand  of  the  angel  icho 
appeared  to  him  in  the  bush.n  He  delivered  the 
people  whom  afterward  he  ruled.  His  promotion, 
too,  was  the  more  remarkable,  in  that  he  possessed 
the  qualifications,  and,  as  occasion  required,  exerci- 
sed the  functions  both  of  a  prophet  and  of  a  priest,  as 
well  as  those  of  a  ruler.  That  he  was  eminently 
endued  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  has  been  noticed 
already.*  Being  "  of  the  house  of  Levi,"  and  with- 
out any  corporal  blemish,0  he  possessed  the  qualifica- 
tions afterward  required  in  a  priest  ;p  and  in  the  pub- 
lic solemnities  of  the  nation,  he  was,  in  some  sense, 
a  kind  of  high  priest,  or,  as  Eben  Ezra  calls  him,  a 
priest  of  priests,  until  this  office,  by  divine  direction, 
was  assigned  to  Aaron  and  restricted  to  his  descend- 
ants.*1 And  being  no  stranger,  but  a  descendant  of 
Jacob,  and  being  chosen  of  God  to  rule  among 
his  brethren,  he  answered  the  character  subsequently 
required  in  a  ruler  of  Israel,  till  the  royalty  came  to 
be  limited  to  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  the  house  of  Da- 
vid/ 

In  the  official  promotion  of  Moses,  therefore,  we 
behold  a  most  happy  illustration  of  the  official  pro- 
motion of  Christ.  In  his  divine  nature,  indeed, 
Christ,  in  common  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  "is  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever."8  But 'our 

nActs  vii.  35.  Comp.  Exo.  iii.  10.  *  Ser.  1.  p.  38—40. 
0  Exo.  ii.  1,  2.  pLevit.  xxi.  17—23.  qExo.  xxiv.  5,  6,  7. 
xxviii.  1.  Num.  iii.  38,  xvi.  40.  r  Deut.  xvii.  15.  1  Chron.  v. 
2.  xxviii.  4.  8  Rom.  ix.  5. 

27 


206  MOSES   WAS  [SER.    VI~ 

subject,  recollect,  respects  him  only  in  his  official 
capacity.  In  this  capacity,  though  typified  by  many, 
he  had,  like  Moses,  no  predecessor.  As  Mediator 
he  was,  of  God  the  Father,  chosen  and  "  set  up  from 
everlasting  ;"'  and  therefore,  his  exaltation  as  king 
in  Zion,  which  was  involved  in  his  exaltation  as  Me- 
diator, was,  like  that  of  Moses  in  Jeshurun,  without 
the  concurrence  of  his  brethren  whom  he  was  to  rule, 
and  even  without  their  knowledge  of  his  appoint- 
ment to  that  office.  He  is  that  Ruler  in  spiritual 
Israel,  whose  goings  forth,  in  love  to  them  and  in  cov- 
enant-engagements for  them,  have  been  from  of  old, 
from  everlasting?  Like  Moses,  he  unites  with  the 
authority  and  qualifications  of  a  Ruler,  those  of  a 
Prophet  and  a  Priest.  He  is  that  Prophet  whom 
God  would  raise  up  like  unto  Moses,w  and  that 
Ruler  who  is  a  Priest  upon  his  throne?  As  Moses, 
when  he  came  into  Egypt,  Christ,  when  he  came  into 
the  world,  found  his  brethren  under  subjection  to  a 
foreign  power,  nay,  disposed  to  remain  under  that 
subjection ;  and  hence,  as  the  brethren  of  Moses  at 
first  refused  him,  saying,  Who  made  thee  a  prince 
and  a  judge  over  us  ?y  So  the  brethren  of  Christ 
have  refused  Him.  The  carnal  Jews,  his  brethren 
after  the  flesh,  said  of  him,  We  will  not  have  this  man 
to  reign  over  us :  and  even  the  elect  of  all  nations, 
though  by  adoption,  the  children  of  God,  and  there- 
fore the  brethren  of  Christ,25  do,  while  in  their  carnal 
state,  like  the  rest  of  mankind,  refuse  him;  thatisr 
they  refuse  audience  to  his  counsel,  as  a  Prophet — 

*Prov.  viii.  23.  »  Micah  v.  2.  w  Deut.  xviii.  15.  Acts  iii.  22. 
vii.  37.  x  Zech.  vi.  13.  y  Acts  vii.  35.  z  John  xi.  52.  Heb.  ii. 
14.  17, 


ll.    VI.l  KING    IN    JKSHURUN. 

dependence  upon  his  atonement,  as  a  Priest,  and 
subjection  to  his  authority,  as  a  king.  Like  Moses, 
therefore,  Christ,  that  he  might  rule  his  people,  must 
redeem  and  deliver  them.  And  as  Moses  having  re- 
deemed the  Israelites  by  the  paschal  sacrifice,  deliv- 
ered them  by  the  wonder-working  rod,  so  Christ 
having  redeemed  the  elect  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself, 
the  true  passover,a  delivers  them  by  the  rod  of  his 
strength,  the  Gospel  ;b  which  coming  to  them  attend- 
ed by  the  quickening  and  enlightening  influence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  proves  the  power  of  God  to  their 
experimental  salvation — their  salvation  from  the  do- 
minion of  Satan  and  of  sin.c  Thus  it  is,  that  they 
are  made  willing  in  the  day  of  his  power?  to  forsake 
their  false  hopes  and  evil  ways,  and  to  acknowledge 
him,  not  only  as  their  Saviour,  but  also  as  their 
Sovereign,  their  Leader  and  Commander* 

How  Moses  was  king  in  Jeshurun  will  more  fully 
appear,  while  we  consider, 

Secondly ',  the  manner  of  his  reign,  or  rather  of  his 
rule  or  administration.*  This,  like  that  of  his  pro- 
motion, was  extraordinary.  The  Government  of 
Israel  was  properly  a  theocracy:  its  constitution 
and  its  laws  being  wholly  of  God.  In  the  adminis- 

a  1  Cor.  v.  7.  b  Psal.  ex.  2.  c  Rom.  i.  16.  vi.  14.  1  Thess.  i.  5. 
d  Psal.  ex.  3.  e  Is.  Ix.  4, 

*  For  Moses,  though  called  "j^D  a  king,  was  not  so  in  a 
proper,  but  a  figurative  sense.  See  Gen.  xxxvi.  31.  Dr.  Kenni- 
cott,  indeed,  and  after  him,%Dr.  Clark  and  others,  by  rejecting,  as 
spurious,  the  word  Moses^n  the  preceding  verse,  make  the  title  of 
king  in  our  text  to  belong  to  JEHOVAH  ;  but,  to  me,  it  seems  much 
safer  to  leave  the  standard  original,  so  long  received  by  Jews  and 
Christians,  untouched,  and  to  consider  this  title  as  here  given  to  Mo- 
ses, to  denote  his  dignified  station,  as  God's  Vicegerent,  and  which, 
as  explained,  well  comports  with  the  character  of  his  administration* 


208  MOSES   WAS  [SER.    VT. 

tration  of  it,  therefore,  Moses  acted,  not  as  a  civil  ruler 
merely,  but  as  God's  Representative;  for  in  all  the 
messages  and  mandates  which,  in  his  public  capacity, 
he  delivered  to  Israel,  God,  in  effect,  spake  through 
him,  requiring  their  audience  and  obedience  by  him.f 
Hence  their  rebelion  against  him,  was  rebelion 
against  God  ;g  just  as  their  subsequent  rejection  of 
Samuel,  who,  for  a  time,  occupied  a  similar  station, 
was  the  rejection  of  God.h 

In  his  administration,  then,  as  well  as  in  his  pro- 
motion, Moses  was  a  shadow  of  Him  that  was  to 
come.  Christ  was  not  only,  like  Moses,  God's  Repre- 
sentative on  earth,  but  IMMANUEL,  God  with  us.  And 
though  by  nature  he  is  the  Father's  equal,  yet  by 
office,  he  is,  like  Moses,  the  Father's  servant,*  and, 
as  such,  is  governed  by  his  will :  /  am  come  down 
from  heaven,  said  Christ,  not  to  do  mine  own  will,  but 
the  will  of  him  that  sent  me.k  Hence  his  messages 
and  mandates,  delivered  to(  spiritual  Israel,  like 
those  which  Moses  delivered  to  national  Israel,  are 
from  God :  "  For,"  saith  he,  "  I  have  not  spoken 
of  myself;  but  the  Father  who  sent  me,  he  gave  me  a 
commandment  what  I  should  say,  and  what  I  should 
speak."1  Consequently,  as  we  reject  or  acknowledge 
him,  we  reject  or  acknowledge  God  the  Father  ;m 
who  says  of  him,  "  I  have  set  my  king  on  my  holy 
hill  of  Zion  ;"D  by  which  is  meant  the  gospel-church, 
the  mystical  Zion  and  Jerusalem.  Hence,  by  an 
evident  allusion  to  the  assemblage  of  the  national 

f  Exo.  iii.  13 — 17.  Deut.  iv.  1,  2,  4.  *Deut.  ix.  7,  24.  xxxi. 
27.  h  1  Sam.  viii.  7.  *  Philip,  ii.  6,  7.  Comp.  Is.  xlii.  1. 
k  John  vi.  38.  i  Ibid.  xii.  49.  m  Mark  ix.  37.  Luke  xi.  6. 
Comp.  John  xii.  48.  "  Psal  ii.  6. 


SER.    VI.]  KING    IN   JESHtJRUN.  209 

Israelites  at  the  material  places  so  called,  believers, 
by  their  accession  to  the  gospel-church,  are  said  to 
have  come  to  mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the 
living  God}  the  heavenly  Jerusalem"0  Here,  in  the 
name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Father,  Christ,  as 
Mediator  reigns  ;  and  though,  in  Providence,  his  del- 
egated dominion  is  universal :  all  power  in  heaven 
and  in  the  earth  being  given  unto  him ;  yet,  in  grace, 
his  administration  extends  only  to  spiritual  Israel, 
God's  elect  people,  as  the  civil  administration  of  Mo- 
ses extended  only  to  literal  Israel,  God's  chosen  na- 
tion. By  the  special  constitution  and  appointment  of 
God  the  Father,  Christ  is  emphatically  king  in  Zion 
— Lord  and  Law-giver,  Judge  and  Defender  there.p 

In  some  things,  it  is  true,  the  administration  of 
Moses  was  deficient  in  typifying  that  of  Christ.  Of 
this  deficiency  a  few  instances  follow : 

1.  The  administration  of  Moses  terminated  at  his 
death.  Not  so  that  of  Christ.  He  was  indeed  put 
to  death  in  the  flesh ;  but  in  dying  he  virtually  con- 
quered his  greatest  enemies.  Through  death  he 
destroyed,  for  his  people,  him  that  had  the  power  of 
death,  that  is,  the  devil ;  nay,  spoiled  also  principal- 
ities and  powers — and  made  a  show  of  them  openly, 
triumphing  over  them  («  «*?«)  in  himself.*  Nor  was 
his  flesh  suffered  to  see  corruption  :  but  was  quick- 
ened by  the  Spirit*  Moreover,  by  his  resurrection  he 
was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  that 
is,  with  regal  authority.8  Him  hath  God  exalted  to 
be  a  PRINCE,  as  well  as  a  Saviour,  to  give  repentance 
to  Israel  and  forgiveness  of  sins* 

0  Heb.  xii.  22.  Gal.  iv  .26.  Comp.  Psal.  cxxii.  2—4.  P  Is. 
xxxiii.22.  Eph.i.82.  Rev.  xix.  16.  iHeb.  ii.  14.  Col.  ii  15. 
r  Acts  ii.  27.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  »Rom.  i.  4.  4  Acts  v.  31. 


MOSES    WAS  [SER.    VI, 

2.  The  administration  of  Moses  was  of  short  du- 
ration ;    but  that  of  Christ  is  unceasing.     He  shall 
reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob,  the  house  of  God's 
spiritual  Israel  for  ever  ;  and  of  his  kingdom  there 
shall  be  no  end.u 

3.  The  government  of  Moses  was  only  external ; 
but  that  of  Christ  is  both  external  and  internal.    He 
governs  his  people  externally  by  his  word,  and  inter- 
nally by  his  grace.     Thus  he  reigns  over  a  willing 
people  ;  they  being  made  willing  in  the  day  of  his 
power™     And, 

4.  To  the  national  Israelites,  Moses  was  an  object, 
rather  of  dread  than  of  love  ;  but,  to  spiritual  Israel- 
ites, Christ  is  an  object  rather  of  love  than  of  dread ; 
"  whom  having  not  seen  ye  love  ;"  and  "  in  whom, 
though  now  ye  see  him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice 
with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory ."*     I  hasten 
to  consider, 

III.  When,  in  particular,  Moses  appeared  to  be 
king  inJeshurun,  namely,  when  the  heads  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  tribes  'of  Israel  were  gathered  together. 

1.  When  the  heads  of  the  people  were  gathered  to- 
gether. This  appellation  was,  indeed,  sometimes 
given  to  all  the  principal  officers  of  Israel,  whether 
civil  or  military  ;y  yet,  in  our  text,  I  understand  it  to 
denote  jirimarily,  the  twelve,  (one  out  of  each  tribe) 
whom  the  Lord  chose  by  name,  to  be  in  a  special 
mariner  with  Moses,2  and  secondarily,  the  seventy 
whom  the  Lord  also  chose,  though  in  a  somewhat 
different  manner ;  making  his  choice  of  them  manifest 
by  bestowing  upon  them  a  measure  of  the  Spirit  which 
more  abundantly  rested  upon  Moses,  under  whose  di- 

u  Luke  i.  33.  Comp.  Dan.  ix.  6, 7.  w  Psal.cx.  3.  x  1  Pet.  i.  8. 
y  Exo,  xviii.  25.  1  Chron.  xii.  32.  z  Numb.  i.  4—16. 


SER.    VI.]  KING    IN   JESHUUUN. 

rection,  they  were  thenceforward  employed  in  the  in- 
struction and  government  of  Israe!.a  Now,  when 
these  heads  of  the  people,  either  the  twelve  or  the  se- 
venty, or  both  together,  were  convened,  Moses  was,  in 
effect,  king  among  them ;  they  being  all  subordinate 
to  him.  The  authority,  in  fact,  by  which  they  acted, 
was  originally  delegated  to  Moses,  and  the  Spirit  of 
wisdom  which  they  possessed,  was,  as  just  noticed, 
but  a  measure  of  that  Spirit,  which  previously  rested 
on  him.  Through  him,  in  a  word,  they  received  their 
call  and  their  charged  How  naturally  do  these 
things  in  the  history  of  Moses,  lead  our  thoughts  to 
correspondent  things  in  the  history  of  Christ !  To 
the  twelve  representatives  and  seventy  elders,  who, 
under  Moses,  were  "  the  heads  of  the  people,"  answer 
the  twelve  apostles  and  seventy  disciples,  who,  under 
Christ,  were  the  heads  or  principal  men  in  the  New- 
Testament  Israel.  And  though  He  ordained  the 
twelve,  (whom  he  had  chosen  by  name)  to  be,  in  a 
special  manner,  with  him  in  his  public  ministry,0  and 
employed  the  seventy  only  as  evangelists  ;  yet  the 
spiritual  qualifications  of  both  were  alike  from  him, 
and  were  but  so  many  various  measures  of  the  same 
Spirit,  which  God  gave  to  him,  not  by  measure,  but 
in  all  the  fulness  of  his  gifts.d  Hence,  Christ  having 
received  gifts  for  men*  has  constantly,  according  to 
covenant-purpose,  bestowed  them  upon  men :  He 
gave  some  apostles,  some  prophets,  some  evangelists, 
and  some  pastors  and  teachers ;  for  the  perfecting  of 
the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edify- 
ing of  the  body  of  Christ.9  Like  Moses,  therefore, 
among  "the  heads"  of  national  Israel,  and  muchmore 

•Numb.  xi.  16,  17,  24, 25.  b  Ibid.  i.  1—17,  xi.  16—29,  and 
Deut.  i.  15—17.  c  Mark  iii.  14—19.  Luke  vi.  12—16.  d  John 
iii.  34.  •  Psal.  Ixviii.  18.  f  Eph,  iv.  11,  12. 


212  MOSES    WAS  [SER.    VI, 

eminently,  Christ  was  always  king  among  "  the 
heads"  of  spiritual  Israel.  He  claimed  and  they 
acknowledged  him,  to  be  their  Lord  and  Master, 
while  he  tabernacled  among  them/  And  after  his 
ascension,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  descent  of 
the  Spirit  in  his  name  proved,  and  an  apostle  speak- 
ing by  that  Spirit  declared,  that  God  had  made,  that 
is,  manifested  HIM  to  be  "both  LORD  and  CHRIST."11 
Is  his  authority  any  less  among  ordinary  ministers  \ 
Have  they,  in  their  conventions,  a  power  which  even 
the  apostles  had  not — a  power  to  invent  doctrines,  or- 
dinances and  codes  of  discipline,  for  the  church,  and 
to  impose  them  upon  her  1  Let  this  question  be  duly 
considered  by  all  who  are  liable  either  to  the  tempta- 
tion or  the  imposition.  But, 

2.  Moses  was  king  in  Jeshurun,  when  the  tribes  of 
Israel  also,  as  well  as  when  the  heads  of  the  people 
only,  "were  gathered  together."  And  being  their  king, 
not  by  their  own  election,  but  by  God's  appointment, 
neither  the  heads  alone,  nor  they  and  the  tribes  to- 
gether, had  power  either  to  substitute  another  in  his 
place,  or  to  alter  any  part  of  the  law  which  came  to 
them  through  him,  or  any  of  the  statutes  or  ceremo- 
nies which  were  delivered  to  them  by  him.  The 
same  is  equally  and  more  evidently  true  of  spiritual 
Israel,  the  gospel-church.  For  whether  her  heads, 
her  officers  only,  or,  with  them,  her  tribes,  her  seve- 
ral branches  also  are  convened,  Christ  is  Lord  of  all. 
Nor  have  they  themselves  (and  much  less  have  other 
conventions  on  their  behalf,)  ever  had  a  right  to  set 
over  them  any  ruler  in  the  room  of  Christ,  whom 
God  the  Father,  without  consulting  their  will,  consti- 
tuted king  in  Zion ;  or  to  change,  in  any  respect, 

«  Matt,  xxiii.  8,  10.   John  xiii.  13.      h  Acts  ii.  33.  36. 


SEK.  vi. J  KLM;    UN  JESHUIIU^.  213 

that  gospel  of  grace  and  truth,  which  came  through 
him  or  those  ordinances  and  rules  of  discipline,  which, 
either  in  person,  or  by  his  Spirit  in  the  apos- 
tles, were  delivered  by  him.1  Let  the  ministers  and 
churches  of  Christ  remember,  that  to  change  his  laws 
is  the  work  of  antichrist  :k  "  he,"  said  the  prophet, 
"  shall  speak  great  words  against  the  Most  High,  and 
shall  wear  out  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  think 
to  change  times  and  laws:  and  they  shall  be  given 
into  his  hand,"  so  far  as  to  render  his  changes  of 
them  popular,  "until  a  time,  and  times,  and  the  divid- 
ing of  time.*  But  the  judgment  shall  sit,  and  they  shall 
take  away  his  dominion,  to  consume  and  to  destroy  it 
unto  the  end.  And  (thereupon)  the  kingdom  and 
dominion,  and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under 
the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  kingdom  is  an  ever- 
lasting kingdom,  and  all  dominions  shall  serve  and 
obey  him."  Comp.  Rev.  xi.  15.  Lift  up  your  heads, 
then,  ye  saints  of  the  Most  High,  for  your  rcdemp- 

1  John  i.  17.  Gal.  i.  7—6.  Acts  xv.  28,  29.  xvi.  4,  5.  k  Dan, 
vii.  25 — 27.  Comp.  2  Thess.  ik  3 — 12,  and  Rev.  xviith,  xviiith, 
and  xixth  chapters. 

*  In  this  prophecy,  a  TIME,  TIMES,  and  the  DIVIDING  OF  TIME, 
or  HALF  A  TIME,  as  expressed  in  Rev.  xii.  14,  mean  a  year — two 
years  and  half  a  year.  These  three  and  a  half  years,  therefore, 
note  the  same  duration  which,  in  Rev.  xiii.  5,  is  noted  by  42  months. 
And  whereas  in  the  calculations  of  the  ancient  Jews,  a  month  con- 
sisted of  30  days  and  a  year  of  360,  either  notation  amounts  ex-^ 
actly  to  the  1260  days  designed  in  Rev.  xii.  6.  In  these  prophetic 
notations,  however,  a  farther  mystery  is  involved  ;  for  each  day,  (as 
in  Ezekiel  iv.  6.)  is  put  for  a  year;  God  thus  showing,  that,  by  his 
decree,  the  dominion  of  antichrist  was  limited  to  1260  years.  Who- 
ever, therefore,  can  ascertain  when  it  began,  may  easily  ascertain 
when  it  will  end.  Admonished,  however,  by  the  mistakes  of  oth^ 
ers,  I  forbear,  at  present,  to  oft'er  any  opinion  on  the  subject. 

28 


214  AIOSEP    WAS  [SEIJ.    VI. 

tion  from  mystical  Babylon  and  the  dominion  of  anti- 
christ draweth  nigh.     Luke  xxi.  28. 

By  way  of  conclusion,  let  us  briefly  review  and  im- 
prove the  subject. 

Is  the  true  Jeshurun  a  seeing  and  an  upright  peo- 
ple I*  Let  each  ask,  Am  I  one  of  that  people '!  What 
have  I  seen  of  myself — of  the  law — of  the  gospel — of 
Christ,  or  of  God  in  him,  more  than  the  carnal  world 
see'!  or  that  amounts  to  a  scriptural  evidence  that 
the  eyes  of  my  understanding  have  been  enlightened? 
And  what  testimony  do  I  feel — what  evidence  do  I 
give,  that  I  am  one  of  those  who,  through  grace,  are 
upright  in  their  hearts,  and  hence  labor,  in  worship 
and  in  practice,  to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of 
offense  toward  God  and  toward  men  ?  Psal.  cxxv. 
4,  and  Acts  xxiv.  16. 

Is  Christ  king  in  Zion  ?  Let  all  who  inhabit  this 
holy  hill  examine  whether  they  are  indeed  his  loyal 
subjects.  Do  we  cordially  receive  his  doctrine  which 
is  according  to  godliness?  1  Tim.  vi.  3.  Do  we  man- 
ifest our  love  to  him,  by  keeping  his  commandments  ? 
John  xiv.  15.  And  are  we,  in  our  transactions,  civil 
and  ecclesiastical,  governed  by  his  royal  injunction 
delivered  to  his  disciples — all  things  whatsoever  yc 
would  that  'men  should,  do  to  you,  (changing 
conditions)  do  ije  even  so  to  them.  Matt.  vii.  12. 
Let  sinners  in  Zion  be  of  raid — \Qlfearfulness  sur- 
prise the  hypocrites-  Is.  xxxiii.  14.  Again, 

Is  Christ  king  in  Zion,  whether  the  heads  only  or 
the  tribes  also  be  gathered  together  ?  O  that  the 
consideration  of  this  may  always  have  its  due  influ- 
ence upon  both !  Then  neither  Conventions  of  Min- 
isters, who,  in  some  sense,  are  heads  of  the  people, 
being  leading  men  among  them — nor  Associations  of 

*  See  p.  194,  dec. 


SEK.    VI. J  KING    IN    JESHURU1V. 

Churches,  however  useful  as  advisory  councils,  will 
ever  assume  a  legislative  authority  in  Zion  ;  but,  re- 
membering their  subjection  to  Christ,  as  Lord  and 
Law-giver  there,  will  endeavor  to  maintain,  inculcate, 
and  transmit  unaltered,  the  doctrine  which  he  hath 
delivered,  and  the  ordinances  and  government  which 
he  hath  instituted.  Again, 

Is  Christ  king  in  Zion  ?  Let  all  his  cordial  sub- 
jects exult  in  it.  No  king  is  like  ours.  He  is  KING 
of  kings  and  LORD  of  lords.  Many  are  mighty, 
but  he  is  Almighty.  All  our  enemies,  within  and 
without,  on  earth  and  in  hell,  are  under  his  control : 
and  all  our  friends,  human  and  angelic,  are  in  his 
keeping  and  under  his  direction.  With  all  blessings 
temporal  and  spiritual  in  his  gift,  he  makes  this  ani- 
mating proclamation,  "  They  that  seek  the  Lord 
shall  not  want  any  good  thing ;"  he  being  judge, 
however,  of  what  is  good  for  us.  In  our  militant 
state,  indeed,  "  It  is  given  to  us,  not  only  to  believe  in 
him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake."  Yet  even  this 
is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  promise  and 
the  prospect  of  future  glory  ;  for  "  If  we  suffer  with 
him,  we  shall  also  reign  with  him."  Our  life,  in  a 
word,  both  spiritual  and  eternal,  is  bound  up  in  his 
life  as  Mediator :  wherefore  he  saith  to  his  subjects, 
"  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also  ;"  and  an  apostle 
speaking  in  his  name,  assures  us,  that  "when  Christ 
who  is  our  life  shall  appear,  we  also  shall  appear  with 
him  in  glory."  Let  the  children  of  Zion,  then,  be 
joyful  in  their  king. 

But  while  the  sovereignty  of  Christ  is  delightfully 
interesting  to  his  friends,  it  is  no  less  fearfully  so  to 
his  enemies.  For  though,  in  the  administration  of 
grace,  he  reigns  only  in  Zion,  yet  in  the  administra- 
tion of  Providence  and  the  execution  of  Judgment, 


, 

MOSES    WAS,  &C.  [sER.    VI. 

his  dominion  is  universal.  By  covenant  arrangement, 
ttZ/  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  is  employed  by 
him,  and  all  judgment,  special  and  general,  is  commit- 
ted to  him.™  In  his  reign,  therefore,  God  the  Father 
reigns,  both  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Consequently, 
from  his  righteous  decisions,  rebels  can  make  no  ap- 
peal, nor  from  his  incensed  wrath,  find  any  shelter. 
Unqualified  subjection,  or  inevitable  perdition,  is 
their  only  alternative.  Of  those  who  persevere  in 
their  rebelion,  God  the  Father  says  to  Christ,  "  Thou 
shalt  break  them  with  a  rod  of  iron  ;  thou  shalt  dash 
them  in  pieces,  like  a  potter's  vessel."  Nor  will  he 
defer  judgment  or  respect  persons.  "  Be  wise  now, 
therefore,  O  ye  kings,"  as  well  as  others  ;  "be  instruc- 
ted ye  judges  of  the  earth,"  who  have  hitherto  spurn- 
ed at  instruction.  Be  admonished,  O  sinners,  great 
and  small,  to  consider  now  your  danger,  and,  as  the 
last  resort,  as  the  only  possible  means  of  escape/row 
the  wrath  to  come,  repair  to  the  sceptre  of  IMMANUEL, 
who  is  JESUS,  as  well  as  Christ — a  SAVIOUR,  as  well 
as  a  king ;  and  who  "  is  able  to  save  them  to  the 
uttermost,  that  come  unto  God  by  him."  Condemned 
and  helpless,  "  kiss  the'Son," — acknowledge  him  to 
be  the  Son  of  God  and  trust  in  him  as  the  only  Sa- 
viour of  sinners,"  lest,"  for  your  contempt  of  him,  "he 
be  angry,  an<$  ye,"  like  the  rebelious  Jews,  "  perish 
from  the  way" — the  way  of  means," — "when  his 
wrath  is,"  comparatively,  "  kindled  but  a  little,"  and 
so  be  left  to  die  in  your  sins  and  sink  into  hell,  where 
his  wrath,  thus  aggravated,  burns  in  all  its  dreadful 
and  eternal  fury.  Blessed  are  they  that  put  their 
trust  in  him.  Psal.  ii.  9 — 12. 

»>Matt.  xxviii.  18.     John  v.  22.     Acts  x.  42.        n  Matt.  xxi.  43. 
Acts  xiii  46—48,  and  xxviii.  23—28. 


SERMON  VII. 

THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN, 


Deut.  xxxiii. — 6.     Let  Reuben  live,  and  not  die ;  and  let  not 
his  men  be  few. 


THE  subject  of  this  chapter,  as.  asserted,  ver.  1, 
is  a  blessing.  This  blessing  consists  of  three  parts : 
a  declarative — a  prophetic — and  an  admirative 
part.  The  declarative  part,  is  a  recognition  of  fa- 
vors which  God  had  already  conferred  upon  Israel, 
and  on  account  of  which  Moses  pronounced  them 
blessed.  It  extends  from  the  second  to  the  fifth 
verse,  inclusive ;  and  has  been  considered  in  the 
last/o^r  Sermons;  the  first  two  being  appropriated 
to  the  title  of  the  chapter.  The  prophetic  part  be- 
gins with  our  present  text,  and  continues  to  the  end 
of  ver.  25th.  And  the  admirative  part,  beginning 
with  ver.  26th,  concludes  the  chapter.  That  the 
second  part  is  wholly  prophetic  admits  of  no  doubt; 
for,  in  it,  Moses  speaks  only  of  things  which  were 
then  future,  and  of  which  therefore,  he  could  have 
had  no  certain  knowledge,  but  by  the  Spirit  of 
prophecy.  Nor  is  this  part  of  the  chapter  distin- 
guished merely  by  its  being  prophetic,  but  also  by 
its  being  special ;  for,  whereas  in  each  of  the  other 
parts,  the  people  of  Israel  are  treated  of  collectively, 

29 


218  THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.  [SER.  VII. 

in  this  part,  the  several  tribes  of  that  people  are 
treated  of  separately. 

Having  thus  briefly  analized  the  chapter,  and 
characterized  that  part  of  it  on  which  we  are  about 
to  enter,  I  beg  leave,  as  farther  preparatory  to  the 
work  before  me,  to  make  a  few  general  remarks. 
These  are — 1.  That  the  several  tribes  which  are 
to  come  under  our  consideration,  were  not  so  many 
different  and  distinct  people,  but  so  many  constituent 
portions  of  the  same  people;  who  both  before  and 
afterward,  are  treated  of  en  masse,  as  the  congrega- 
tion and  the  fountain  of  Jacob.  See  verses  4th  and 
28th: — 2.  That  as  the  whole  nation  of  Israel,  which 
descended  from  Jacob,  was  evidently  a  type  of  the 
whole  family  of  Spiritual  Israel,  descending,  in  the  or- 
der of  time,  from  Christ,  the  Antitype  of  Jacob;  so  the 
several  tribes,  which  descended  from  Jacob,  by  his 
twelve  sons,  may  justly  be  viewed  as  typical  of  the  nu- 
merous branches  of  spiritual  Israel,  all  descending 
from  Christ,  by  means  of  the  gospel,  preached  by  his 
twelve  eminent  sons,  the  apostles,  and  from  the 
original  apostolic-church,  that  Jerusalem,  which  was 
above  and  free,  and  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all ; 
that  is,  of  all  true  believers  and  of  all  legitimate 
gospel-churches.  See  John  xvii.  20.  Gal.  iv.  26.  and 

Rev.  xii.  1 — 4. 3.  That,  as  in  the  blessings  which 

Jacob,  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  pronounced  on  his 
twelve  sons,  and  those  which  Moses,  by  the  same 
Spirit,  pronounced  upon  their  respective  tribes,  there 
is  a  manifest  and  distinguishing  variety;  so,  in  the  de- 
grees of  grace,  and  gifts,  and  knowledge — in  the  civil 
and  religious  privileges — nay,  even  in  the  means  of 
temporal  sustenance,  bestowed  on  the  particular 
branches  and  individual  members  of  spiritual  Israel, 


SER.  VII.]         THE    BLESSING   OF    REUBEN.  219 

there  is  a  correspondent  and  equally  obvious  variety. 
See  Eph.  iv.  7.  Rom.  xii.  6.  2  Cor.  viii.  7—15, 
and  Rom.  xv.  26, 27.  And — 4.  That  Moses  prayed 
for,  as  well  as  predicted  the  blessings  which  he  pro- 
nounced upon  the  tribes  of  Israel.  Let  this  remind 
us,  that  the  richer  blessings  of  grace,  which  Christ 
in  the  gospel,  pronounces  upon  spiritual  Israelites, 
(Matt.  v.  3 — 12.)  flow  to  them  through  his  media- 
tion, who  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them, 
as  well  as  according  to  what  he  hath  spoken  by  his 
Spirit  in  the  prophets.  1  Pet.  i.  11.  and  Heb.  vii. 
25. 

With  these  remarks  in  constant  recollection,  let 
us,  by  divine  permission  and  relying  on  divine  di- 
rection, humbly  attempt  to  investigate  the  blessings 
thus  prophetically  and  prayerfully  pronounced  upon 
the  tribes  of  Israel.  t 

At  present  our  attention  will  be  devoted  to  Reu- 
ben. For  here,  among  the  tribes  of  Jacob,  as  in 
Gen.  xlixth,  among  his  sons,  Reuben  is  very  naturally 
first  named  and  first  blessed ;  he  being  the  first 
born.  Jacob  having  called  his  sons  together,  to 
bless  them  before  he  died,  began  thiis :  "  Reuben, 
thou  art  my  first  born,  my  might  and  the  beginning 
of  my  strength ;"  that  is,  a  son  born  to  him  in  the 
vigor  of  his  days.  And  in  like  manner,  Moses,  in 
announcing  the  prophetic  blessing  wherewith  he 
blessed  the  children,  the  tribes  of  Israel  before  his 
death,  began  with  the  same  branch,  saying,  Let  Reu- 
ben live,  and  not  die;  and  let  not  his  men  be  few. 

This  prophetic  prayer  requires  a  twofold  con- 
sideration. 

I.  Literal.  In  this  sense  it  respected,  at  least 
primarily,  the  preservation  and  temporal  prosperity 


220  THE   BLESSING   OF    REUBEN.  [SER.  Vlt 

of  this  tribe,  as  such  ;  Let  Reuben  live,  and  not  die,* 
&c.  Nor  was  the  assurance  hereby  given  them,  that 
they  should  enjoy  the  favors  intended,  any  the  less, 
because  the  blessing  was  uttered  in  the  form  of  a 
prayer,  rather  than  in  that  of  a  direct  prediction : 
for  as  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  prophet  could  not  de- 
ceive, by  foretelling  a  blessing,  which  it  was  not  the 
will  of  God  to  bestow,  so  neither,  by  inditing  a  peti- 
tion, which  it  was  not  the  will  of  God  to  answer. 
He  maketh  intercession  for  the  saints  according  to 
the  will  of  God*  Moses,  too,  might  be  moved  by 
the  Spirit,  to  predict  these  blessings  by  asking  them 
of  God,  that  the  tribes  should  thereby  perceive  the 
deep  interest  which  he  took  in  their  welfare ;  of 
which  his  praying  for  them,  was  the  strongest  proof; 
as  also  to  remind  them,  that  the  blessings  he  pre- 
dicted were  not  in  his  gift,  but  in  the  gift  of  God, 
and  that,  to  Him  therefore,  in  faith  and  prayer,  they 
should  be  looking  for  them.  Thus,  as  in  a  subse- 
quent instance,  what  God  had  given  assurance  of  by 
prophecy,  he  would,  nevertheless,  for  this  be  in- 
quired of  by  the  house  of  Israel,  to  do  it  for  them.1' 
Moreover,  to  encourage  them  in  this  duty,  he  be- 
sought the  Lord  to  hear  them :  he  said,  "  Hear, 
LORD,  the  voice  of  Judah/'  meaning  when  the  voice 
of  that  tribe  should  be  lifted  up  in  prayer  on  behalf 
of  Israel.0  In  this,  as  in  many  other  things,  Moses 
was  a  type  of  Christ,  through  whose  intercession, 

The  Chaldee  paraphrasts,  indeed,  refer  the  words  to  the  future 
state,  as  well  as  to  the  present ;  and  explain  them  as  a  prayer,  that 
the  Reubenites,  besides  enjoying  temporal  prosperity,  might  in- 
herit eternal  life ;  and  so  not  die  the  second  death.  Comp,  Rev- 
xx.  6.  and  xxi.  8. 

a  Rom.  viii.  27.     b  Ezek.  xxxvi.  37.     c  Context,  ver.  7. 


SEE  VII.]  THE    BLESSING   OF    REUBEN.  221 

spiritual  Israelites  have  audience  with  God  and  re- 
ceive all  their  answers  to  prayer.d 

In  the  case  of  the  Reubenites,  however,  there  ex- 
isted special  reasons  why  the  prophet  was  led  to 
pronounce  the  blessing  upon  them  in  the  form  of  a 
supplication  to  God,  rather  than  as  a  mere  predic- 
tion concerning  them. 

First,  This  tribe  would  be  among  the  most  ex- 
posed, in  the  wars  to  be  engaged  in  for  the  conquest 
of  Canaan.  For,  as  a  condition  6f  having  their  por- 
tion in  Gilead,  east  of  Jordan,  "  the  children  of  Reu- 
ben ;"  with  "  the  children  of  Gad,"  and  those  of 
"  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,"  had  volunteered  to  go 
over  the  River,  ready  armed  before  their  brethren, 
and  the  Lord,  through  Moses,  had  taken  them  at 
their  word  and  required  them  to  perform  their 
promise.6  Of  this  their  engagement,  Joshua  re- 
minded them,  when  marshaling  his  forces  prepara- 
tory to  the  war ;  "  and  they,"  far  from  shrinking, 
"  answered  him,  saying,  all  that  thou  commandest 
us  we  will  do,  and  whithersoever  thou  sendest  us  we 
will  go."f  O  that  the  soldiers  of  Christ,  both  in 
public  and  in  private  stations,  were  ever  thus  obedient 
to  him  !  Pursuant  to  promise,  when  the  time  for  the 
important  adventure  arrived,  "  the  children  of  Reu- 
ben, and  the  children  of  Gad,  and  half  the  tribe  of 
Manasseh,  passed  over  armed  before  the  children  of 
Israel,"  that  is,  before  the  other  tribes,  "  as  Moses 
had  spoken  unto  them."g  Of  the  tribes  in  common, 
therefore,  these  two  and  a  half,  and  of  these,  the 
Reubenites  in  particular,  were  the  most  exposed : 

d  John  xiv.  16.  17.  xvi.  23.       c  Num.  xxxii.  16—32.     f  Josh  i. 
12—16.     » Ibid.  iv.  12. 


222  THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.          [SER.  VII. 

for,  as  they  are  first  named,  they  seem  to  have  been 
first  ranked  in  the  order  of  military  procession ;  and 
so  were  the  vanguard  of  all  the  army,  at  its  entrance 
upon  the  shore  of  the  promised,  but  disputed  land. 
What  opposing  force  they  might  have  to  encounter, 
even  at  the  onset,  was  unknown  to  them.  In  pro- 
phetic prospect,  therefore,  of  their  imminent  danger 
and  awful  suspense,  Moses,  to  teach  and  encourage 
them  to  hope  in  God,  was  moved  to  intercede  with 
HIM  on  their  behalf.  How  appropriate  his  prayer  ! 
Let  Reuben  live,  and  not  die.  Believer,  at  every 
time  of  danger  or  of  conflict,  remember  Him  who 
hath  said  I  have  prayed  for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail 
not.h 

Secondly,  The  fate  of  this  tribe  might  be  thought 
specially  doubtful,  on  account  of  the  enormous  crime 
fallen  into  by  their  progenitor  ;  Reuben  having  com- 
mitted incest  with  Bilhah,  his  father's  concubine; 
and  the  more  so,  because  of  the  severe  notice  taken 
thereof  by  Jacob,  in  his  prediction  concerning  this 
son.  Addressing  him,  Jacob  said,  "  Unstable  as 
water,  thou  shalt  not  excel,  because  thou  wentest 
up  to  thy  father's  bed,"  &C.1  Well  therefore,  might 
Moses,  who  knew  that  God  had  threatened  to  "  visit 
the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  unto 
the  third  and  fourth  generation" — well,  I  say,  might 
Moses  feel  great  apprehensions  for  this  tribe ;  and 
thus  impressed,  deliver  his  prediction  concerning  it 
in  the  form  of  a  prayer  to  God,  saying,  Let  Reuben 
live,  and  not  die  ;  and  let  not  his  men  be  few.  The 
last  clause,  as  it  reads  in  our  version,  is  a  prophetic 

h  Luke  xxii.  32.          *  Gen.  xlix.  4. 


SEE.  VII.]  THE    BLESSING   OF    REUBEN.  223 

petition,  that  the  men  of  this  tribe  might  be  nume- 
rous ;  but,  as  it  stands  in  the  original,  it  is  a  prophetic 
concession  of  the  contrary ;  namely,  that  the  men 
of  this  tribe  would  be  few.  For,  in  the  Hebrew,  the 
word  not  is  wanting,  and  the  prefix  i  van,  which  is 
here  rendered  and,  may  as  well  be  rendered  though, 
as  it  is  in  some  other  places  ;k  and  then  the  whole 
text  runs  literally  thus :  Let  Reuben  live,  and  not 
die,  though  his  men  be  few.  To  this  reading,  I 
the  rather  incline,  because,  it  agrees  with,  and 
serves  to  confirm  and  illustrate,  the  prophecy  of 
Jacob  concerning  Reuben,  that  he  should  not  excel, 
that  is,  in  numbers.  Now,  so  read,  the  literal  sense 
of  the  prayer  is,  "  Let  the  men  of  Reuben,  though 
greatly  exposed — though  deeply  stained  by  their 
father's  crime — and  though  comparatively  few  in 
number,  be  nevertheless  preserved  and  prospered : 
let  them  not  be  cut  off  by  the  enemy,  nor  by  any 
judgment;  but  let  them  survive  every  battle — escape 
every  calamity,  and  be  returned  to  their  families  and 
possessions  in  peace."  Such,  too,  was  the  event: 
for  though  this  tribe,  in  the  number  of  its  warriors, 
long  waned,*  it  still  lived  and  sustained  a  military  cha- 
racter ;*  and  the  men  of  it,  who  adventured  their  lives 
in  Canaan,  having,  (according  to  the  received  opinion 
of  the  Jews,)  spent  seven  years  in  the  war  and  seven 
more  in  dividing  the  land,  were  dismissed  by  Joshua, 
with  expressions  of  kindness  and  approbation,  and 
returned  from  the  enterprise  greatly  enriched  by 

k  Among  which  are  Ezk.  xiv.  14,  18.  *  During  Israel's  jour- 
ney in  the  wilderness,  the  men  of  Reuben,  able  for  war,  were  re- 
duced from  46500,  to  43730 :  a  decrease  of  2770.  Compare  the 
muster-roll  in  Num.  i.  with  that  in  Num.  xxvi.  }  1  Chron.  xii.  42, 
xxvi.  32. 


224  THE    BLESSING   OF   REUBEN.         [SER.  VII. 

their  share  in  the  spoils  of  the  conquered  nations.111 
But  this  prophecy  requires 

II.  A  mystical  consideration.  To  prepare  our 
minds  for  this,  let  it  be  recollected,  that  as  many 
types  were  employed  to  set  forth  the  various  proper- 
ties of  Christ,  so  many  were  also  employed  to  set 
forth  the  correspondently  various  properties  of  his 
mystical  body,  the  church.  Considered  either  as  cho- 
sen in  Christ^  or  as  called  by  the  Spirit,  the  church  is 
but  one;n  and,  as  such,  is  the  antitype  of  the  one 
national  Israel,  chosen  in  Jacob  and  called  out  of 
Egypt;0  yet,  considered  with  reference  to  her  parti- 
cular branches,  she  was  also  fitly  typified  by  that 
one  Israel,  as  consisting  of  particular  tribes,  all  dif- 
fering in  number,  location,  character,  gifts,  and  other 
circumstances.1*  Like  the  members,  therefore,  of  a 
natural  body,  or  those  of  a  common  family,  the 
several  branches  of  the  church,  in  general,  and 
the  several  members  of  each  branch,  in  particular, 
instead  of  envying,  depreciating,  and  injuring  each 
other,  ought  to  be  mutual  helpers  and  comforters ; 
and  the  rather  so,  because  "  whether  one  member 
suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  or  one 
member  be  honored,  all  the  members"  have  occasion 
to  "  rejoice  with  it."q  In  the  history,  moreover,  of 
each  tribe  of  Israel,  may  be  traced,  some  character- 
istic peculiarities,  both  good  and  bad,  which  serve  to 
set  forth,  in  some  respects,  the  whole  church,  and,  in 
others,  certain  of  her  branches,  as  also  particular 
descriptions  of  members,  occasionally  found  in  all 
her  branches.  At  present,  however,  we  are  required 

m  Josh.  xxii.  1—9.  n  Col.  i.  18.  Heb.  xii.  23.  Cant.  vi.  9. 
Eph.  iii.  21.  °  Is.  xli.  8.  1  Pet.  ii.  19.  P  Hosea  ii.  14,  15. 
Acts  ix.  31.  xvi.  4.  *  1  Cor.  xii.  12—27.  Eph.  ii.  19. 


SER.  VII.]         THE    BLESSING   OF    REUBEN.  225 

to  notice  only  the  peculiarities  which  distinguished 
the  tribe  of  Reuben.  This  tribe,  then,  served  to 
typify  the  church, 

1.  As  the  household  of  faith.  This  may  be 
gathered  from  the  name  of  its  progenitor.  For,  as 
the  names  of  the  patriarchs  are  all  significant — as 
they  were  evidently  given,  to  commemorate  or  to 
foretell  important  events — and  all  descended  with 
their  respective  tribes,  we  must  not  overlook  them 
in  the  mystical  consideration  of  these  prophetic 
blessings.  Reuben,  from  run  raah  to  see  and  p  ben 
a  son,  signifies  See  or  Behold  a  son,  or  a  sight  or 
vision  of  a  son.  In  giving  him  this  name,  Leah, 
his  mother  seemed  exultingly  and  thankfully  to  call 
upon  all  around,  to  behold  with  admiration,  the  gift 
of  God  to  her,  who  had  been  long  barren;  for  she 
said,  "  Surely  the  Lord  hath  looked  upon  mine  afflic- 
tion."' Thus  the  church,  after  her  long  barrenness 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  old  dispensation,"  was 
favored  with  her  famous  Son,  the  Messiah  ;*  when, 
for  better  reasons  and  with  greater  emotions  of  ex- 
ultation and  gratitude,  than  those  of  Leah — nay,  in 
the  very  language  of  inspiration,  adapted  to  the  oc- 
casion, she  might  have  exclaimed,  "  Unto  us  a  child 
is  born,  unto  us  a  Son  is  given,''  &c.u  If,  indeed,  as 
is  commonly  believed,  Leah  supposed  her  first-born 
to  be  the  Messiah,  and  therefore,  that  in  seeing  him, 
she  and  others  saw  that  eminent  Seed  that  was  to 

r  Gen.  xxix.  32.       •  Is.  liv.  1.  Gal.  iv.  27. 

*  For  though  literally  he  was  born  of  the  virgin  Mary;  yet 
figuratively  the  church  is  said  to  have  brought  him  forth ;  his  mani- 
festation in  the  flesh  and  his  manifestion  in  the  souls  of  sinners 
at  their  conversion,  being  both  in  answer  to  her  desires  and  prayers. 
See  Cant.  viii.  5.  Rev.  xii.  1,  2,  5,  6,  u  Is  ix.  6, 7. 

80 


226  THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.          [SEE.  VII. 

bruise  the  Serpents  head,  she  was  under  a  great 
mistake.*  But  not  so  the  church;  for  she  that  tra- 
vailed, in  desire  and  prayer,  crying,  "  Oh  that  the 
Salvation,"  (the  Saviour)  "of  Israel  were  come  out  of 
Ziori,"  hath  eventually  brought  Him  forth  ;w  yes,  the 
long  promised — long  expected  Son  is  verily  born ; 
and  though  the  mere  national  Israelites,  the  carnal 
Jews,  beholding  him  only  with  their  bodily  eyes, 
received  him  not*  yea,  according  to  prophecy,  re- 
jected him  with  abhorrence  and  disdain  ;y  yet  spi- 
ritual Israelites,  even  all  that  are  born  of  God, 
whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  having  seen  him  by  faith, 
which  is  like  an  eye  to  the  soul,  have  received  him, 
and  therein  have  received  from  him  power  to  become 
the  sons  of  God,  that  is,  they  have  received,  through 
him,  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  they  have  been 
enabled  to  realize  and  enjoy  their  filial  relation.* 
Thus  it  is,  that  believers  while  on  earth,  see  the  Son, 
though,  by  his  ascension,  he  is  become  invisible  to 
the  eye  of  sense  :  "  Yet  a  little  while,"  said  he  to 
his  disciples,  "  and  the  world  seeth  me  no  more ; 
but  ye  see  me,"  meaning  that  they  should  continue 
to  see  him  by  faith.  This  is  the  special  excellence 
and  peculiar  blessedness  of  all  true  believers ;  they 
see  the  Son  as  others  neither  do  nor  can ;  they,  in  a 
word,  have  that  sight  of  him,  to  which,  according  to 
his  own  testimony,  the  counsel  of  God  hath  annexed 
the  assurance  of  everlasting  life :  This,  saith  he, 
is  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me,  that  every  one  who 
seeth  the  Son,  and  believeth  on  him,  may  have  ever- 

*  Probably  Eve  was  under  a  like  mistake  when  she  brought 
forth  Cain,  and  said:  I  have  gotten  m'rp-nx  ZTK  eesh  eth  yehovah 
a  man,  the  Lord.  Gen.  iv.  1.  w  Psal.  xiv.  7.  Micahv.  2.  x  John 
i.  1 1.  y  Is.  xlix.  5—7.  liii,  2—7.  and  Mark  iv.  3.  z  John  i.  12. 13. 


SER.  VII.]  THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.  227 

lasting  life  ;  adding,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the 
last  day* 

2.  In  her  infirmities  and  imperfections.  In  these 
how  much,  alas,  does  the  church  resemble  Reuben, 
whom  Jacob  pronounced  unstable  as  water ! 

Like  water,  the  members  of  the  church  are,  in 
themselves,  weak — so  weak  as  to  be  incapable 
of  any  thing  spiritually  good.  Without  me,  said 
Christ  to  his  disciples,  ye  can  do  nothing*  Without 
Christ,  as  the  way,  no  man  cometh  to  the  Father, 
so  as  to  be  justified  in  his  sight.0  Without  a  con- 
tinual "  supply  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,''  d  be- 
lievers can  make  no  effectual  resistance  against 
temptation — render  any  acceptable  service  to  God — 
or  endure  any  affliction  or  trial  with  becoming  resig- 
nation. Successfully  to  resist  Satan  and  the  course 
of  this  world,  we  must  be  found  stedfast  in  the  faith,* 
even  iha.t  faith  which  is  in  Christ  J  To  know  what 
we  should  pray  for  as  we  ought,  we  are  dependent 
on  the  Spirit,  who,  as  "  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of 
supplication,"  helpeth  our  infirmities^ .  And,  that  we 
may  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us, 
we  must  run  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  Author  and 
Finisher  of  our  faith.11  In  him  is  our  doing  and 
suffering  strength,  as  well  as  our  justifying  righteous- 
ness. "In  the  Lord,"  saith  a  believer,  "have  I 
righteousness  and  strength."1 

In  ourselves,  nevertheless,  we  are  all  unstable  as 
water ;  we  are  not  only,  like  that,  weak  in  nature ; 
but,  like  that,  soon  become  lukewarm',  and  moreover, 
like  that,  are  prone  to  run  the  downward,  because, 

a  John  vi.  40.  t>Ibid  xv.  5.  c  Ibid.  xiv.  6.  d  Philip,  i.  19 
el  Pet.  v.  9.  1  John  v.  4.  ^Acts  xxvi.  18.  *  Rom.  viii.  26, 
*Heb.xii,  1,2.  *  Is.  xlv.  24, 


228  THE   BLESSING   OF    REUBEN.          [»ER.  VII, 

to  nature,  the  easier  course.  Happy,  therefore,  is  it 
for  us,  that  grace,  dwelling  in  our  souls,  is  "a  well  of 
water  springing  up  into  everlasting  life."k 

Hence  a  perpetual  warfare  between  nature  and 
grace,  flesh  and  spirit;1  and  by  reason  of  this  war- 
fare, we  are  also,  like  water,  inconstant;  easily  agita- 
ted— exceedingly  changeable  in  our  frames  and 
often  wavering  in  our  resolutions.  If,  in  the  lively 
exercise  of  faith,  a  believer  can  say,  with  David, 
"  Lord  by  thy  favor  thou  hast  made  my  mountain  to 
stand  strong;'5  perhaps  darkness  ensues,  and  the 
next  thing  the  Lord  hears  from  him  is  David's  com- 
plaint; "thou  didst  hide  thy  face  and  I  was  troub- 
led.""1 What  if  a  believer  in  the  vigor  of  grace,  can 
say  of  God,  as  Job  did,  "Though  he  slay  me  yet 
will  I  trust  in  him ;" n  it  may  not  be  long  till,  by  rea- 
son of  spiritual  languor  and  outward  trouble,  he 
may,  like  the  same  saint,  feel  as  if  the  object  of  his 
trust  had  abandoned  him  to  the  will  of  his  enemies, 
and  say,  "God  hath  delivered  me  to  the  ungodly, 
and  turned  me  over  into  the  hands  of  the  wicked."0 
The  believer  who,  at  one  time,  may  be  so  crucified  to 
all  the  endearments  of  human  society,  and  so  delight- 
ed in  God,  as  to  exclaim,  "Whom  have  I  in  heaven 
but  thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire 
besides  thee  ;"p  may,  at  another  time,  under  affliction 
and  dejection,  covet  so  ardently  the  society  and  sym- 
pathy of  kindred  ones,  as  to  esteem  a  providential 
denial  thereof,  a  bitter  privation ;  nay,  may  be  tempt^ 
ed  to  complain  thereof  to  God  himself,  saying, 
"  Lover  and  friend  hast  thou  put  far  from  me,  and 
mine  acquaintance  into  darkness."q 

kJohn  iv.  14.  'Gal.  v.  17.  Rom.  vii  18—23.  n  Psal.  xxx.  T. 
"Jobxiii.  15.  °Ibid.  xvi.  11.  P  Psal.  Ixxiii.  25.  '  Psal.  Ixxxviii.  18. 
Comp.  Jobxix,  13, 14,  21, 


8ER.  VII.J  THE    BLESSING    OP    REUBEN.  229 

With  flowing  tears,  Lord,  we  confess 
Our  folly  and  unsteadfastness;   . 
When  shall  these  hearts  more  fixed  be! 
Fix'd  by  thy  grace,  and  fix'd  for  thee? 

BEDDOME. 

Imperfections,  too,  as  well  as  infirmities,  attend 
the  saints  in  the  present  life,  and  render  them  un- 
stable as  water.  Though  in  general,  a  believer, 
like  HezeMah,  may  "trust  in  the  Lord  God  and 
cleave  to  him,  and  so  "  God  may  be  with  him,"  both 
graciously  and  providentially;  yet,  in  some  things, 
God,  as  to  his  enlightening,  restraining,  and  direct- 
ing influence,  may  leave  him,  as,  in  the  business  of 
the  Ambassadors,  he  left  Hezekiah,  "to  try  him,  that 
he"  (not  God,  but  Hezekiah,)  "  might  know  all  that 
was  in  his  heart,"  and  particularly  that  pride  which 
lurked  there,  unobserved  by  him  before/  Thus 
"the  people  that  know  their  God,"  while  sustained 
by  him  are  strong  and  do  exploits,"8  but  when,  by 
way  of  chastisement,  they  are  for  a  time  forsaken 
of  him,  they  become  tremulous  and  are  readily  dis- 
couraged; "all  hands'5  are  then  feeble,  and  all  knees 
are  weak  as  water •.' 

3.  In  her  comparative  smallness.  For,  like  the 
tribe  of  Reuben,  the  church  has  never  excelled  in 
numbers.  On  the  contrary,  compared  with  mystical 
bdbylon,  and  with  "the  world  that  lieth  in  wicked- 
ness,'' the  church  of  true  believers  has  constant- 
ly appeared  like  a  little  flock?  Nevertheless,  such  are 
the  provisions  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  that  when 
all  the  chosen  and  redeemed  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
called  by  grace,  they  will  be  "a  multitude  which 
no  man  can  number,  of  all  nations,  and  kin- 

r  2  Kings  xviii.  5 — 7.  and  2  €hron.  xxxii.  31.  "Dan.  xi.  32. 
'Ezek.vii.  17.  "Lukexii.  32. 


230  THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.          [sER.  VII. 

dreds,  and  people  and  tongues ;"  and,  to  denote  their 
personal  justification  and  complete  victory,  "through 
him  that  hath  loved  them  and  given  himself  for 
them,"  they  shall  stand  "before  the  throne  and  be- 
fore the  Lamb,  clothed  with  white  robes,  and  palms 
in  their  hands."  w  Hence, 

4.  In  her  preservation.  According  to  the  pro- 
phetic prayer  of  Moses,  in  the  text,  the  Reuben- 
ites,  though  greatly  exposed  to  danger — though, 
as  a  consequence  of  their  father's  sin,  they  were 
unstable  as  water,  and  though  comparatively  few 
in  number,  yet  lived,  and  did  not  die — did  not 
become  extinct,  as  a  tribe.  So  the  church.  For, 
though  her  members,  having  to  contend  with  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil,  are  exposed  to  many 
dangers  within  and  without — though,  by  reason  of 
depravity  derived  from  Adam,  the  common  progen- 
itor of  mankind,  they  are  all,  like  water,  weak  and 
inconstant,  and  though  she  has  never  excelled  in 
numbers,  and  therefore  not  in  worldly  influence ;  she, 
nevertheless,  according  to  the  word  of  Christ,  ex- 
pressed in  his  own  preaching,  and  by  his  Spirit  in 
the  discourses  of  the  prophets  and  apostles,  has 
lived  and  must  continue  to  live,  and  not  die;  yes, 
she  remains  and  must  for  ever  remain,  a  seed  to  serve 
him*  and  an  inheritance  to  reward  him/  Christ 
and  his  church,  in  covenant  and  in  vital  union,  con- 
stitute one  mystical  person;  he  the  head  and  she  the 
body\z  therefore,  while  Christ,  the  head  lives,  the 
church,  which  is  his  body,  cannot  die ;  and,  in  this 
case,  what  is  true  of  his  body  is  true  of  its  constituent 
members ;  to  whom,  therefore,  he  is  saying,  Because 

«  Rev.  vii.  9.      *Psal.  xxii.  30.  and  Ixxxix.  36.      ^Is.  liii.  11. 
and  Heb.  xii.  2.     *  Eph  i.  22,  23.  ii.  15.  v.  30.  Col.  i.  18.  ii.  19. 


SER.  VII.]         THE    BLESSING    OF   REUBEN.  231 

/  live  ye  shall  live  also.*  Ye  shall  live — 1.  A  life  of 
grace ;  which  has  its  source  in  Christ,  and  is  perpetu- 
ated by  supplies  of  grace  from  him :  He  giveth  more 
grace.* — 2.  A  life  of  justification;  "By  him  all  that 
believe  are  justified  from  all  things,  and  shall  not 
come  into  condemnation."0 — 3.  A  life  of  communion 
with  God:  "For  through  him  (Christ)  we  both 
(believing  Jews  and  believing  Gentiles)  have  access 
by  the  Spirit  to  the  Father ;  and  truly  our  fellow- 
ship is  with  the  Father,  and  with  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ."d  Yet, — 4.  I  understand  him  chiefly  to 
mean,  that  the  members  of  his  mystical  body,  in 
conformity  to  those  of  his  natural  body,  shall  be 
raised  from  the  dead,  and  live,  with  him,  a  life  of 
ineffable  glory  and  blessedness  in  heaven.  "  This" 
saith  he,  "  is  the  Father's  will  who  hath  sent  me, 
that  of  all  which  he  hath  given  me,  I  should  lose 
nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day."0 

We  have,  therefore,  the  utmost  assurance,  that,  like 
the  Reubenites  literally,  all  true  believers  spiritually 
shall  live  and  not  die — that  however  numerous  their 
foes  within  and  without,  and  however  agitated  by 
the  winds  of  temptation  and  shaded  by  the  clouds 
of  reproach,  they  shall  survive  every  conflict  and 
every  storm ;  and  that,  having  finished  their  course 
of  labor  and  warfare,  their  divine  Joshua  will  dis- 
charge them  with  honor,  and  secure  to  them  a  safe 
conveyance  over  the  Jordan  of  death,  and  a  peace- 
ful admittance  into  the  heavenly  inheritance. 

From  the  subject  let  us  learn, 

First,  Some  of  the  sad  effects  of  sin,  especially 

"John  xiv.  19.  b2  Tim.  i.  9.  Jas.  iv.  6.  cActs.  xiii.  39.  and 
John  v.  24.  dEph.  ii.  18.  and  1  John  i.  3.  cJohn  vi.  39.  Camp,. 
Philip,  iii.  21.  and  Col.  iii,  4. 


THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.          [sEK.  Vlf, 

of  gross  sin,  fallen  into  by  professors  of  religion. 
Such  was  the  sin  of  Reuben.  By  birth  and  privileg- 
es, he  was  one  of  God's  national  Israel.  His  odious 
crime,  therefore,  was  a  reproach  both  to  Israel  and 
to  Israel's  God :  for  he  that  docth  aught  presump- 
tiously,  reproacheth  the  Lord.*  Whether,  according, 
to  the  opinion  of  many,  Reuben  was  a  believer  in 
the  Messiah,  and  therefore,  through  him,  received 
the  grace  of  repentance  and  the  gift  of  eternal  life, 
I  shall,  with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  leave  undecided. 
But  certain  it  is,  that  his  iniquity  was  strongly  mark- 
ed in  his  subsequent  condition.  For, 

1.  He  was  unstable  as  water.  How  striking 
and  how  awful  the  typical  design!  It  is  to  re- 
mind spiritual  Israelites,  that  if,  in  any  instance, 
they  should  be  left  so  far  to  themselves  and  to 
the  power  of  temptation,  as  to  fall  into  any  gross 
transgression,  the  consequences  must  be  fearful. 
For,  though  preserved  by  Jesus  Christ?  from  fall- 
ing into  hell,  they  must,  nevertheless,  fall  under 
a  sad  decline  of  spiritual  vigor ;  their  faith  must 
waver,  their  hope  must  stagger,  and  their  great 
strength,  like  that  of  Sampson  when  his  hair 
was  cut,  must  depart  from  them ;  and  which,  like 
his,  may  never  return  till  at  death. h  And  though, 
like  the  fallen  Corinthians,  such,  in  all  generations, 
are  made  to  experience  that  godly  sorrow  which 
worketh  repentance  unto  salvation ;'  yet,  like  them, 
they  "are  chastened  of  the  Lord,  that  they  should 
not  be  condemned  with  the  world.3'  Hence,  under  a 
sort  of  judicial  consumption,  "  many  are  weak  and 
sickly,  and  many  sleep.11  These  things  observed  by 

f  Num.  xv.  30.  Comp.  Neh.  v.  9.  *Jude  Ver.  1.  bJudges 
xvi.  19—30,  *  2  Cor.  vii.  9.  10.  k  1  Cor.  xi.  30—82. 


Vll.j  THE    BLESSING   OP    REUBEN.  233 

their  brethren,  should  excite  in  them,  as  the  divisions 
of  Reuben  excited  in  the  other  tribes,  great  thoughts 
— nay,  great  searchings  of  heart} 

For  his  gross  sin,  Reuben  was  not  only  weakened, 
but, 

2.  Degraded:   His   birthright  was  given  to  the 
sons  of  Joseph.""1     Happy  is  it  for  the  saints,  that, 
being  children  of  God,  their  spiritual  birthright 
can  never  be  forfeited ;  and  that,  being  heirs  of  God 
and  joint  heirs  with  Christ,  their  heavenly  inherit- 
ance can  never  be  alienated.11     Nevertheless,  such  is 
God's  abhorrence  of  evil,  that  while,  if  any  of  his 
children  be  falsely  accused,  he  will,  as  exemplified  in 
Joseph,  deliver  and  exalt  them;0  yet  when  any  of 
them,  and  especially  of  those  in  public  stations  in 
his  church,  fall  into  gross  transgression,  he  usually 
suffers  them,   with  regard  to  reputation  and  condi- 
tion, to  sink  below  their  brethren,  and  often  below 
such  as,  in  gifts  and  knowledge,  and  perhaps  in  grace 
also,  are  far  inferior  to  them.     With  such  instances 
in  recollection,  let  believers  in  common,  and  espe- 
cially those  distinguished  by  eminence  in  the  gospel 
ministry,  be  apprised  that  no  abilities,  however  bril- 
liant, nor  any  condition,  however  exalted,   in  the 
church  militant,  can  secure  them  from  Satanic  snares, 
or  (in  case  of  compliance)  from  providential   re- 
bukes ;  and  hence  be  stimulated  to  -watchfulness  and 
prayer :  Watch  and  pray,  said  Christ  to  his  disciples, 
that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation.     Matt.  xxvi.  41. 

Still  more.    Reuben,  for  his  vile  transgression,  be- 
sides being  weakened  and  degraded,  was 

3.  Placed  upon  prophetic  record,  as  a  notorious 

4  I.Judges,  v.  15.  16.  Comp.  2  Cor.  vii.  11.     ml  Chron.  v.  1. 
»  Rom.  viii.  17.  1  Pet.  i.  3—5.      °  Gen.  xli.  35—38. 

31 


234  THE   BLESSING   OF   REUBEN.  [SER.  Tit, 

offender  in  Israel .p  Hence,  let  spiritual  Israelites 
remember,  that  although  false  reports  concerning 
them,  even  though  confirmed  by  a  pretence  to  spe- 
cial revelations,  as  those  which  Sanballat  and  his 
party  invented  and  caused  to  be  circulated  against 
Nehemiah,  were  confirmed  by  the  prophetess  Noadia 
and  the  rest  of  the  false  prophets,  that  would  have 
put  him  in  fear?  must  all  vanish  before  the  force 
of  truth ;  yet,  that  should  they  indeed  be  surprised 
and  hurried  into  any  scandalous  offenses,  they  would 
have  reason  to  expect  the  reproach  thereof  to  follow 
them.  Such  has  been  the  common  lot  of  fallen 
saints.  Thus,  the  drunkenness  of  Noah,  the  equivo- 
cation of  Abraham,  the  adultry  of  David,  and  the 
idolatry  of  Solomon,  though  all  forgiven/  are  to 
their  shame,  all  recorded  by  the  pen  of  inspira- 
tion. Nor  have  the  New-Testament  saints  escap- 
ed. Would  the  disciples,  contrary  to  the  Spirit  of 
their  blessed  Master,  have  called  for  fire  from 
heaven,  to  destroy  their  enemies  ?  Did  Peter,  through 
fear,  deny  his  Lord  ?  And,  did  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
long  companions  in  travel  and  labor,  contend  sa 
sharply  about  Mark,  that  they  separated?  Their 
offenses,  though,  like  those  of  the  Old-Testament 
saints,  all  pardoned  through  the  atonement  and 
mediation  of  Christ,  are  nevertheless,  like  theirs,  all 
"  written,"  not  for  our  imitation,  but  for  "  our  admoni- 
tion, upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come. 
Wherefore,  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take 
heed  lest  he  fall."8 

Secondly,  Something  of  the  sufficiency  and  the 
victories  of  grace.    Did  Reuben,  in  a  temporal  sense, 

P@«O.  xlix.  4.     iNeh.  vi.  2—14.     rHeb.  xi.    '1  Cor  x.  11, 

in. 


.  VII.]         THE  BLESSING   OP  REUBEN.  235 

live  through  the  mediation  of  Moses'!  How  much 
more  shall  the  heirs  and  subjects  of  grace,  live 
spiritually  and  eternally  through  the  mediation  of 
Christ  1  In  themselves,  it  is  true,  they  are  like 
Reuben,  unstable  as  water,  that  is  weak  and  incon- 
stant; yet,  in  regard  to  their  safety,  they  are,  like 
Timothy,  strong  in  the  grace  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus ; 
and  are  therefore,  like  him,  exhorted  to  be  so  in  the 
exercise  of  faith  and  hope  in  that  grace.1 

Hence,  when  satan,  either  by  his  immediate  sug- 
gestions, or  by  any  instrument  he  employs  for  the 
purpose,  is  permitted  to  buffet  them,  by  opposing  the 
truth  which  they  believe  or  the  hope  they  entertain, 
or  by  exciting  their  indwelling  depravity,  to  the 
distress  of  their  souls,  his  effort,  though  designed  for 
their  ruin,  is  overruled  for  their  good;  it  serves 
happily  to  prevent  them  from  being  exalted  above 
measure;  and  though  painful  indeed,  even  like  a 
thorn  in  thejlesh,  Christ,  to  support  and  encourage 
them  under  it,  verifies  to  each  what  he  affirmed  to 
Paul,  when  thus  assaulted — My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
thee;  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness" 

Nor  is  the  Adversary  any  more  successful  when 
he  desires  to  have  us  so  far  in  his  power,  that 
he  may  sift  us  as  wheat  For  though  his  desire  is 
sometimes  granted,  his  design  is  always  frustrated. 
He  may  be  permitted  to  shake  us  by  temptation,  till, 
both  to  ourselves  and  others,  the  evidences  of  our 
gracious  state  may  become  greatly  obscured  by  our 
rising  corruptions,  even  as  the  grains  of  wheat,  in 
the  shaken  sieve,  become  covered  by  their  chaff. 
Thus  sifted,  a  believer,  like  David,  may  in  his  haste, 
say  to  the  Lord,  /  am  cut  off  from  before  thine 
12  Tim.  ii.  1.  »$  Cor.  xiL  T— 9. 


236  THE    BLESSING    OF    REUBEN.          [sER.  VII* 

eyes  ;v  and  his  friends,  like  those  of  Job,  may  suspect 
him  to  be  but  a  hypocrite  ;w  nevertheless,  an  inter- 
est in  the  advocacy  of  Christ,  secures  his  victory ; 
for  what  Christ  said  to  Peter  when  in  this  condition, 
is  equally  true  of  every  tempted  saint — I  have  prayed 
for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail  not  .x 

Nor  is  victory  all:  for  in  this  trial  of  our  faith, 
which  is  much  more  precious  than  that  of  gold,  we 
are  not  only  conquerors,  but  much  more  than  con- 
querors, through  hint  that  hath  loved  us.y  This 
trial  itself,  though  under  it  we  may  be  confused  and 
agitated  almost  to  distraction,  is  among  the  all  things 
that  icork  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God. 
By  it,  like  Peter,  we  come  to  know  more  of  our- 
selves ;  and  hence,  like  him,  are  converted  from  the 
pernicious  snare  of  self-confidence,  and  better  pre- 
pared to  strengthen  our  brethren* 

The  grace  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  moreover,  pro- 
vides a  remedy  against  the  deadly  malady  of  sin 
itself.  With  this  malady  every  child  of  God  re- 
mains infected  while  in  the  body ;  but  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  his  Son,  with  reference  to  divine  Jus- 
tice, cleanseth  us  from  all  sin*  Nor  must  a  believer, 
even  though  unhappily  fallen  into  actual  sin,  either 
yield  to  a  continuance  therein  or  despair  of  divine 
mercy ;  but,  with  abhorence  of  the  former,  and  by 
faith  in  the  fountain  of  atonement,  the  sovereign 
antidote  to  the  latter,  have  immediate  recourse  to 
the  throne  of  grace;  recollecting  that  if,  among 
believers,  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with 
the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous.™ 

vPsal.  xxxi.  22.  wJob.  xi.  3.  xv.  4.  xLuke  xxii.  31.  32. 
Comp.  John  xvii.  9.  15.20.  yRom.  viii.  37.  2Luke  xxii.  32, 
and  3  Pet,  iii,  17,  18.  al  John  i.  7,  8.  blbid.  h7J. 


SEH.  VII.]  THE   BLESSING   OF   REUBEN.  237 

Such,  in  a  word,  is  the  perfection  of  God's  plan 
of  salvation,  that  the  same  grace  which  laid  its  foun- 
dation in  purpose,  secures  its  completion  in  glory ; 
that,  "as  sin  alone  reigned  unto  death,  even  so 
might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eter- 
nal life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.c" 

Finally,  How  far  the  privileges  of  Spiritual  Israel- 
ites surpass  those  of  mere  national  Israelites.  When 
Joshua  discharged  the  Reubenites  from  their  literal 
warfare  he  sent  them  from  him ;  but  Jesus,  when  he 
discharges  his  soldiers  from  their  spiritual  warfare 
receives  them  to  be  with  him :  "  I  will  receive  you  to 
myself,"  said  he  to  his  disciples,  "  that  where  I  am 
there  ye  may  be  also."d  To  the  Reubenites,  Joshua 
assigned  an  inheritance  in  Gilead;  but  to  believers, 
Jesus  assigns  an  inheritance  in  heaven.  The  in- 
heritance  of  the  Reubenites  was  temporal ;  but  that 
of  the  saints  is  eternal.  John  xvii.  2. 

c  Rom.  v.  81.    d  John.  xiv.  3. 


SERMON  VIIL 

THE   BLESSING   OF   JUDAH, 


Deut.  xxxiii.  7.—* And  this  is  the  blessing  of  Judah :  and  he  said, 
Hear,  LORD,  the  voice  of  Judah;  and  bring  him  unto  his  people : 
let  his  hands  be  sufficient  for  him :  and  be  thou  an  help  to  him 
from  his  enemies. 


IN  the  record  itself  of  these  blessings  pronounced 
by  Moses  on  the  tribes  of  Israel,  there  are  two 
things  remarkable;  namely,  that  no  mention  is  made 
of  the  tribe  of  Simeon,  Jacob's  second  son,  and  that 
the  tribe  of  Judah,  though  he  was  Jacob's  fourth 
son,  occupies  the  second  place.  Both  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  adverting  to  revealed  facts.  In 
the  division  of  Canaan,  "  the  second  lot,"  indeed, 
"  came  forth  to  Simeon ;"  but,  as  his  children  had 
"their  inheritance  within  the  inheritance  of  the 
children  of  Judah,"  Moses,  led  by  inspiration,  bless- 
ed them  together.  See  Joshua  xix.  1.  And  where- 
as, in  a  national  sense,  the  royalty  is  m'ore  honorable 
than  the  priesthood)  the  tribe  of  Judah,  to  which 
God,  by  the  prediction  of  Jacob,  had  assigned  the 
former,  is  here  placed  before  that  of  Levi,  to  which, 
in  this  prediction  of  Moses,  he  assigned  the  latter. 
See.  Gen.  xlix.  10,  and  Context,  ver.  8. 

And  this  is  the  blessing  of  Judah ;  which  Moses 
uttered,  not  only  by  a  Spirit  of  prophecy,  but  also, 


SEtt.  VIII.]          THE   BLESSING  OF  JUDAH.  239 

as  he  uttered  most  of  the  blessings  respecting  the 
other  tribes,  in  a  way  of  prayer:  "and  he  said, 
Hear,  LORD,  the  voice  of  Judah,  &c."  Neverthe- 
less, for  the  reason  given  in  the  preceding  Sermon, 
page  220,  the  blessings  which  he  prayed  for  by  the 
Spirit  of  prophecy,  were  as  certain  to  be  granted 
as  those  which  he  directly  foretold  by  that  Spirit. 
Our  text  therefore,  though  uttered  in  the  form  of  a 
prayer,  is  entirely  prophetic;  and  its  accomplish- 
ment may  be  traced  both  literally  and  typically. 

1.  LITERALLY.  Hear,  Lord,  the  voice  of  Judah~\ 
This  tribe,  by  reason  of  its  great  eminence  among  the 
tribes  of  Israel,  was  often  exposed  to  great  danger  ;a 
but,  as  a  mark  of  God's  distinguishing  favor,  it  al- 
ways had,  in  it,  a  succession  of  praying  persons ; 
whose  voice,  according  to  this  prediction  of  Moses, 
the  Lord  heard  and  answered.  "The  Lord  was 
with  Judah  and  he  drave  out  the  inhabitants  of  the 
mountain."b  Nay,  at  the  worst  of  times,  "  in  Judah 
things  went  well."0  Nor  was  the  praying  voice  of 
this  tribe  lifted  up  for  themselves  only,  but  also  for 
the  whole  nation.  The  king  himself,  who  was  con- 
stantly to  be  of  this  tribe,d  was  usually  a  praying 
man,  and  whose  cries,  with  those  of  his  praying 
subjects,  ascended  to  God,  in  behalf  of  Israel  when 
in  distress,  and  were  answered  by  seasonable  direc- 
tions and  deliverances.  This  was  eminently  true 
in  the  times  of  David*  of  Asa,*  of  Jehoshaphatf 
and  of  Hezekiah.h 

And  bring  him  unto  his  people]  Judah  being  a 
military  tribe,  the  men  of  it  were  often  abroad  and 

*  Judges  i.  1, 2.  blbid.  Ver.  19.  C2  Chron.  xii.  12.  d  1  Chron. 
Y.  2.  «2  Sam.  ii.  1.  xxi.  1.  f  2  Chron.  xiv.  9—15.  elbid  xx.  2 
—13.  h2  Kings  xix.  14.  &e. 


THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAH.          [SEE.  Vllfv 

engaged  in  war,  in  which  it  is  common  for  many  to 
be  slain;  wherefore,  in  this  clause  of  the  text, 
Moses,  influenced  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  prayed 
for,  and  so  predicted,  their  safe  return  from  every 
campaign :  Hear,  Lord,  the  voice  of  Judah,  when 
engaged  in  battle,  or  otherwise  in  danger,  and  bring 
him  unto  his  people,  each  to  his  family,  and  all  to 
those  of  the  nation,  who  did  not  appertain  to  the 
army;  and  which  implies  the  preservation  of  those 
at  home,  as  well  as  of  those  abroad;  or  the  latter 
could  not  have  been  returned  to  the  former.1  Hence, 
let  all  who  have  returned  from  the  dangers  of  war 
or  of  the  seas,  learn  to  attribute  their  own  preserva- 
tion and  that  of  their  families,  friends  and  possess- 
ions, to  the  providential  care  of  God.  "  Salvation, 
temporal  as  well  as  spiritual,  belongeth  unto  the 
LORD." 

Let  his  hands  be  sufficient  for  him]  This  tribe, 
on  account  of  its  great  importance  to  all  the  rest, 
would  have  much  to  do  both  internally  and  relatively, 
and  hence,  by  this  prophetic  prayer  was  assured  of 
sufficient  ability :  Let  his  hands,  which  are  the  sym- 
bols of  action,  be  sufficient  for  him ;  sufficient  to 
provide  for  him,  to  fight  for  him,  and  to  defend  him. 
The  fulfilment  of  this  prophecy  is  apparent  in  sacred- 
history.  See  2  Sam.  iii.  1.  v.  1 — 12;  2  Chron, 
xvii.  12 — 19.  By  this,  let  individuals  and  commu- 
nities, whose  locations  and  relations  devolve  upon 
them,  much  care,  much  labor,  and  much  expense 
in  the  cause  of  Christ,  be  encouraged  to  hope  that 
as  their  day,  their  strength  shall  be ;  and  let  those  to 
whom  much  is  given,  remember  that  of  them  muck 
is  required* 

i  1  Sam  xxx.  23—25.     k  Luke  xii.  48. 


SER.  VIII.]         THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  241 

And  be  thou  an  help  to  him,  from  his  enemies] 
Policy,  as  well  as  power,  would  be  employed  against 
Israel.  By  this  prophecy,  therefore,  Judah  was  an- 
imated with  the  assurance  of  divine  aid  both  in 
counsel  and  in  battle.  In  counsel,  making  them 
wiser,  and,  in  battle,  making  them  stronger,  than 
their  enemies,  however  artful  or  powerful.  Of  this, 
even  the  mercenary  Balaam  became  convinced, 
though  to  his  great  regret ;  and  of  which,  constrain- 
ed by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  he  made  proclamation, 
though  to  his  own  loss.  "Surely,"  said  he,  "there 
is  no  enchantment  against  Jacob,  neither  is  there 
any  divination  against  Israel :  according  to  this  time 
it  shall  be  said  of  Jacob  and  of  Israel,  What  hath 
God  wrought !  Behold  the  people  shall  rise  up  ?as 
a  great  lion,  and  lift  up  himself  as  a  young  lion :  he 
shall  not  lie  down  until  he  eat  of  the  prey,  and  drink 
the  blood  of  the  slain."1  That  God  helped  Judah 
and  all  who  adhered  to  him,  was  specially  manifest 
under  the  reign  of  David  and  that  of  Jehoshaphat.™ 

But  I  hasten  to  trace  the  accomplishment  of  this 
prediction, 

II.  TYPICALLY.  In  this  sense,  it  requires  a  twofold 
application. 

1.  To  Christ ;  who,  according  to  the  flesh,  descen- 
ded from  this  tribe.  "For  Judah  prevailed  above 
his  brethren,  and  of  him  came  the  chief  ruler;" 
not  merely  David,  Solomon,  &c.  in  succession,  but 
eventually  the  Messiah  himself,  who  is  emphatically 
the  chief  Ruler"  The  same  also  is  expressly  assert- 
ed in  the  New-Testament :  "For  it  is  evident,"  saith 
an  apostle,  "that  our  Lord  sprang  out  of  Judah."0 

!Num.  xxiii.  23,  24.  m  1  Chron  xii.  22.  and  2  Chron.  xvii.  12— 
19.  and  xx.  4—30.  "1  Chron.  v.  2.  Comp.  Micah  v.  2.  °Heb. 
vii.  14. 

32 


242  THE  BLESSING   OF   JUDAH.         [sEK.  VIII. 

That  Judah  was  eminently  a  type  of  Christ,  will 
appear  in  every  part  of  this  prophecy. 

Like  Judah,  Christ  had  a  prevalent  voice  in  prayer. 
"I  knew,"  said  he  to  the  Father,  "that  thou  nearest 
me  always."p 

The  Father  heard  him,  when,  in  the  eternal  coun- 
cil, he,  as  Mediator,  asked  for  his  chosen  people — 
for  all  the  blessings  they  would  ever  need — and  for 
official  authority  to  claim  them  as  his  own,  and 
to  deliver  and  defend  them  from  all  their  enemies. 
Hence  the  correspondent  grants  which  Christ,  in 
person  and  by  his  spirit  in  the  apostles,  acknowledges 
the  Father  to  have  made  to  him.  Speaking  of  the 
people,  he  says,  "  This  is  the  Father's  will  who  hath 
sent  me,  that  of  all  which  he  hath  given  me  I  should 
lose  nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  again  at  the  last 
day."  And  again,  "  Thine  they  were  and  thou  gavest 
them  me."  Yet,  that  all  might  know  that  the  Father 
did  not,  by  this  grant,  resign  his  own  interest  in  them, 
the  Son  adds,  "All  mine  are  thine,  and  thine  are 
mine;  and  I  am  glorified  in  them."q  Would  this 
people  need  grace,  to  renew,  to  sanctify,  to  strength- 
en and  to  comfort  them  ?  This  was  given  to  them 
in  Christ,  before  the  world  began/  Would  they 
need  spiritual  gifts,  and  especially  gifts  qualifying 
men  for  the  ministry,  who  should  be  employed  in 
their  edification?  These  Christ  received,  that,  in 
all  generations,  he  might  communicate  them  to  men, 
chosen  for  this  important  purpose.8  Would  they 
need  a  suitable  portion  for  a  future  state?  Such 
is  that  "eternal  life,  which  God,  who  cannot  lie, 
promised  before  the  world  began."1  And  to  whom 

PJohn  xi.  42.  q  John  vi.  39.  and  xrii.  6.  10.  r2Timi.  9 
« Peal.  Ixriii.  18.  and  Eph.  ir.  11,  13.  *  Titus  i.  2. 


SER.  VIII.]  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  243 

could  he  then  have  promised  it,  but  to  Christ, 
as  the  Covenantee  of  his  people!  Would  they 
have  many  enemies,  and  so  need  continual  protec- 
tion! This  is  made  certain  to  them  in  Christ, 
who,  in  his  official  capacity  and  for  their  safe- 
ty, received  universal  dominion:  "All  power,"  said 
he,  "is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth."" 
Thus  qualified,  "he  shall  deliver  the  needy  when  he 
crieth,  the  poor  also,  and  him  that  hath  no  helper."w 
"Neither,"  saith  he,  "shall  any  pluck  them  out  of 
my  hand."x 

More  properly,  however,  the  voice  of  Christ  was 
lifted  up  in  prayer  while  he  tabernacled  in  human 
nature  upon  earth. 

As  man,  he  was,  poor  and  needy?  a  man  of  sor- 
rows and  acquainted  with  grief* — yea,  in  temporal 
accommodations,  more  destitute  than  the  foxes  of  the 
forest,  or  the  birds  of  the  air;a  and  being,  withal, 
abhorred  by  his  nationb  and  assailed  by  the  tempter,0 
he  greatly  needed  the  protection  and  succor  of  his 
heavenly  Father,  and  which  he  fervently  implored. 
For  this  purpose,  he  often  retired  to  some  solitary 
place,  a  mountain  or  desert  ;d  and,  in  one  instance  at 
least,  continued  all  night  in  prayer  to  God.Q  Then 

"  Cold  nights  and  the  midnight  air 
Witnessed  the  fervor  of  his  prayer ; 
The  desert  his  temptations  knew, 
His  conflict  and  his  victor)7  too." 

His  conflict  was  severe,  but  his  victory  was  complete : 
"The  devil,"  foiled  by  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
which  is  the  word  of  God,  "leaveth  him,  and,  be- 
hold, angels"  sent  by  his  Father,  who  always  heard 

"Matt,  xxviii.  18.  John  xvii.  2.  wPsa1.  Ixxii.  12.  x  John  x. 
28.  y  xl.  17.  z  Is.  liii.  3.  *  Matt.  viii.  20.  bls.  xlix.  7.  «  Matt. 
iv.  1—10.  d  Ibid.  xiv.  33.  Mark  i.  35.  and  vi.  46.  «Luke  vi.  12. 


244  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.          [SER.  VIII. 

him,  "  came  and  ministered  to  him."f  They  prob- 
ably brought  him,  besides  cheering  messages,  some 
convenient  food,  which,  by  divine  order,  they  had 
prepared,  to  nourish  his  natural  body  and  to  revive 
his  animal  spirits,  in  which  he  had  suffered  great 
exhaustion  by  fasting  and  temptation.  See  this 
strikingly  typified  in  the  case  of  Elijah.  1  Kings 
xix.  5 — 8. 

Still  more,  however,  did  the  human  nature  of  Christ 
shrink  from  the  ignominious  death,  and  especially 
from  the  fearful  curse,  which,  therein,  he  had  coven- 
anted to  endure  for  his  guilty  people.  Hence  his 
agonizing  conflict  in  the  garden,  when  he  fell  on  his 
face  and  prayed,  saying,  O  my  Father,  if  it  be  possi- 
ble, let  this  cup  pass  from  me ;  nevertheless,  not  as  I 
will,  but  as  thou  wilt ;  which  prayer,  in  the  fervor  of  his 
soul,  he  repeated  a  second  and  a  third  time  ;g  nay,  in 
the  last  instance,  being  in  an  agony,  he  prayed  more 
earnestly  than  before,  and  his  sweat  was  as  it  were 
great  drops  of  blood  falling  down  to  the  ground.11 

From  the  prayer  of  Christ  in  the  garden,  thus 
fervently  and  repeatedly  offered,  we  learn — 1 .  That, 
as  man,  he  has  a  will,  distinct  from  his  will  as  a 
divine  person ;  and  which  proves  that  he  has  a  truly 
human  soul.  Hence,  though  his  divine  will  is  always 
in  perfect  accordance  with  the  Father's  will  ;*  yet, 
when  his  human  nature  shrunk  at  approaching  suffer- 
ings, his  human  will  desired  exemption  from  them. 
As  man,  therefore,  he  prayed  to  the  Father,  saying, 
If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me ;  never- 
theless, (his  holy  soul  being  quiescent  in  his  heaven- 
ly Father's  will,)  he  added,  not  as  I  will  but  as  thou 

'  Matt.  iv.  11.  e  Matt.  xxvi.  39—44.  h  Luke  xxii.  44.  j  PsaJ. 
ad.  7,  8.  and  John  vi,  38. 


SER.  VIII.]        THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAH.  245 

wilt.  O  for  a  like  resignation  to  the  will  of  God,  in 
all  our  supplications  at  his  throne! — 2.  That  the 
mutual  stipulations  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  in 
the  covenant  of  redemption,  are  unalterable — that 
Christ,  as  the  substitute  of  his  people,  was  "delivered 
by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of 
God" — and,  that  without  it  the  scriptures  could  not 
have  been  fulfilled,  nor  a  single  sinner,  consistently 
with  law  and  justice,  have  been  saved.k  For  these 
and  other  reasons,  it  was  not  possible  that  this  cup 
should  pass  from  him.  Nevertheless,  it  is  evident — 3. 
That  the  Father,  who  heard  him  always,  heard 
him  when  in  this  distressing  condition ;  for  though  he 
did  not  take  away  the  cup  itself,  yet  he  took  away 
that  amazing  terror,  which,  in  view  of  it,  had  fallen 
upon  his  human  nature ;  and,  in  this  nature,  strength- 
ened him  to  drink  it  up.  Then  it  was,  that,  accord- 
ing to  prophecy,  the  Father  said  unto  him,  "  In  an 
acceptable  time  have  I  heard"  thee,  and  in  a  day  of 
salvation,"  that  is,  while  he  was  suffering  to  obtain 
the  salvation  of  sinners,  "have  I  helped  thee.1  Thus 
it  was,  that  "in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  when  he  had 
offered  up  prayers  and  supplications  with  strong 
crying  and  tears,  unto  Him  that  was  able  to  save 
him  from  death,"  (had  it  been  agreeable  to  the 
divine  counsel,)  "and  was  heard,"  and  so  was 
delivered  (*«•«  T«  «***£««*$)  from  the  fear,  that  is, 
of  death."1  For  this  purpose  angelic  instrumentality 
was  again  employed:  There  appeared  an  angel 
unto  him  from  heaven  strengthening  him*  Perhaps 
this  angel,  as  supposed  of  those  mentioned,  page  243, 
administered  some  appropriate  nourishment  to  his 

k  Acts  ii.  23.  Matt.  xxvi.  54. 1  Pet.  iii.  18.    !  Is.  xlix.  8.    »  Heb. 
r.  7.  See  Parkhurst,  under  «**£ «<«     n  Luke  xxii.  43. 


246  THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAH.         [SER.  VIII. 

body ;  but  chiefly,  no  doubt,  he  strengthened  him  in 
his  human  soul ;  by  reminding  him  of  the  Father's 
promises,  by  which,  as  man,  he  was  assured  of  all 
needful  support  during  the  conflict — that  his  body, 
though  it  must  die,  should  be  raised  without  seeing 
corruption — and  especially,  by  setting  before  him 
the  glorious  results  of  his  humiliation  and  death ; 
namely,  that,  thereby,  the  divine  perfections  would  be 
glorified — the  prophetic  writings  be  fulfilled — the 
divine  law  be  magnified  and  made  honorable — the 
infinite  evil  of  sin  be  clearly  demonstrated,  and 
innumerable  millions  of  lost  sinners  be  redeemed, 
to  ascribe  their  salvation  to  him  for  ever  and  ever. 
Accordingly,  "  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him, 
he  endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  &c."° 
Hence,  the  holy  composure  with  which  he  left  the 
garden — p  the  intrepid  manner  in  which  he  treated 
the  officers  as  well  as  the  mob,  when  they  came  to 
take  himq — the  magnanimity  which  he  displayed  in 
the  Judgment-Hall1" — and  the  full  confidence  of 
victory  and  glory  which  he  manifested  while  hang- 
ing on  the  cross  ;  for  even  then  he  said  to  the  pen- 
itent thief,  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  para- 
dise.3 And — 4.  That  all  dependence  which  sin- 
ners place  upon  their  prayers  and  tears,  to  satisfy 
divine  Justice  for  their  sins,  must  necessarily  fail ; 
for,  as  the  prayers  and  tears  of  Christ,  though  all 
immaculate,  could  not  atone  for  sin,  how  much  less 
can  ours,  which  are  all  morally  polluted  I  In  like 
manner,  we  may  perceive  the  folly  of  trusting  in 
our  obedience  to  the  law,  to  procure  the  pardon  of 

oHeb.  xii.  2.  P  Matt.  xxvi.  45,  46.  qlbid.  Ver.  52—56. 
Luke  xxii.  52,  53.  John  xviii.  3—9.  r  Ibid.  Ver.  33—37.  and 
xix.  10.  11.  «Luke  xxiii.  43. 


SEE.  VIII.]         THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAH.  247 

our  transgressions  of  it;  for  even  the  obedience  of 
Christ,  in  life,  though  perfect,  and  though  indispen- 
sable to  the  justification  of  his  people,  did  not,  could 
not  procure  the  pardon  of  sin.  Can,  then,  the  im- 
perfect obedience  of  sinners  procure  it  1  Christ 
satisfied  divine  Justice  for  sin,  not  by  his  obedient 
life,  but  by  his  vicarious  death;1  he  "put  away  sin 
by  the  sacrifice  of  himself  ;'ju  and,  accordingly,  it  is 
through  his  blood,  that  his  people  have  redemption 
and  forgiveness*  Look,  therefore,  poor  legalist — 
look  upon  Christ  in  the  garden.  Consider  the 
manner  in  which  he,  though  personally  innocent, 
was  treated  by  his  righteous  Father,  when  he  found 
him  in  the  law-place  of  sinners ;  and,  having  duly 
pondered  the  awful  subject,  ask  thyself  such  questions 
as  these :  Am  I  more  holy,  or  more  worthy  of 
divine  favor  than  he  ?  If  the  demands  of  divine 
Justice  could  not  be  relinquished  to  iavor  him,  even 
though  he  sought  it  with  "strong  crying  and  tears," 
can  I  expect  they  will  be  relinquished  to  favor  me  ? 
If,  then,  I  should  be  found  at  last,  not  under  the 
covert  of  the  righteousness  and  atonement  of  Christ, 
but  accountable  to  God  in  my  own  person,  for  my 
want  of  conformity  to  his  law,  in  nature,  and  for  my 
transgressions  of  it,  in  life,  what  can  I  expect  but 
its  fearful  penalty!  Thy  reasoning,  sinner,  is  just; 
and  living  and  dying  a  legalist,  the  doom  thou  ap- 
prehendest  is  inevitable  :  "  for  as  many  as  are  of  the 
works  of  the  law  are  under  the  curse."  Gal.  iii.  10. 

Christ,  moreover,  as  Mediator,  prayed  for  his 

people :  /  pray,  said  he  to  the  Father,  for  them; 

adding,  I  pray  not  for  the  world,  hut  for  them  which 

thou  hast  given  me ;  for  they  are  thine,  by  special 

1 1  Pet.  iii.  18.    u  Heb.  ix.  26.    w  Eph.  i.  7. 


248  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  [sER.  VIII. 

love  and  choice ;  and  which  was  the  strongest  plea 
that  could  have  been  used  on  their  behalf/  He 
prayed  both  for  all  who  were  then  believers  in  him, 
and  for  all  who,  according  to  covenant-purpose,  were 
thereafter  to  become  such;  God  having  from  the 
beginning  chosen  them  to  salvation,  through  sanctifi- 
cation  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth.  2  Thes. 
ii.  13.  For  those  who  were  then  believers  in  him, 
he  prayed  that  the  Father  would  keep  them  from  the 
evil,  especially  from  the  evil  one,  Satan,  and  that  he 
would  sanctify  them  through  the  truth. ,y  Neither, 
continued  he,  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them 
also  which  shall  believe  on  me  through  their  word ; 
that  is,  through  the  gospel,  which  the  apostles  preach- 
ed. Christ,  therefore,  prayed  for  all  true  believers  to 
the  end  of  the  world.2  Nor  did  he  merely  pray  that 
his  people  might  be  called  and  kept,  but  likewise  that 
ultimately  they  might  be  glorified  :  Father,  said  he, 
I  will  that  they  also,  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  be 
with  me  where  lam;  that  they  may  behold  my  glory, 
which  thou  hast  given  me;  meaning  that  glory 
which,  by  covenant-compact,  belonged  to  him,  as 
Mediator.3  And  that  the  Father  heard  and  answer- 
ed the  supplications  which  he,  as  Mediator,  made  for 
his  people,  must  necessarily  be  concluded  from  the 
promise  which  he  had  given  him,  that  he  should 
see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied*  and 
from  the  grant  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  him,  which,  after 
his  exaltation,  he  received  and  shed  forth,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  that  promise.0 

Hence  also  it  is  evident  that  Christ,  though  ascend- 
ed to  heaven,  still  pleads  the  cause  of  his  militant 

'Johnxvii.  9.  y  Ibid.  Ver.  15— 17.  z  Ibid.  Ver.  20.  albid. 
Ver.  24.  bls.  liii.  11.  c  Acts  ii.  33.  Comp.  Psal.  ex.  3.  and 
Titus  iii.  6. 


«Ell  VIII.]  THE    BLESSING    OF    JUDAli.  249 

people:  He  there  appears  in  the  presence  of  God 
(the  Father)  for  us.d  And  though  to  suppose,  as 
some  do,  that  he  prays  for  his  people  in  heaven,  as 
he  prayed  for  them  upon  earth,  is  absurd;  yet  his 
approved  appearance  there,  is  a  perpetual  and  an 
ever  availing  plea  on  their  behalf;  it  demonstrates 
that  he  has  perfected  all  that  he  had  covenanted  to 
do  and  suffer,  as  the  condition  of  their  salvation  ;  and 
therefore,  that,  on  principles  of  inflexible  righteous- 
ness, he  is  entitled  to  all  that  the  Father,  on  that 
condition,  promised  to  him,  for  them.  Consequent- 
ly, they  must  all  receive  grace  here,  and  eternal  life 
hereafter.6  But  to  procede. 

Like  Judah,  Christ  was  brought  back  to  his 
people.  He  engaged  in  dreadful  conflict  with  all 
the  powers  of  darkness ;  and  though  he  conquered 
it  was  by  dying;  and  while,  according  to  covenant- 
stipulation,  he  remained  under  the  dominion  of  death 
and  the  grave,  his  disciples  were  in  awful  suspense. 
But  God  raised  him  from  the  dead,  and  so  brought 
him  back  from  the  war,  and  restored  him  to  his 
people,  his  family,  his  friends — and  that  to  their 
exceeding  joy.  Then  were  the  disciples  glad  when 
they  saw  the  Lord!  Nay,  their  very  sorrow,  accord- 
ing to  promise,  icas  turned  into  joy;*  that  which 
had  occasioned  it,  namely,  their  Master's  crucifixion, 
becoming  to  them,  when  they  were  led  to  under- 
stand the  design  of  it,  matter  of  joy,  such  as  they 
had  never  known  before.11  Nor  was  that  joy  intend- 
ed for  them  only ;  it  is  the  common  privilege  of  all 
true  believers  to  rejoice  in  him  that  was  dead  and 

dHeb.  ix.  24.  Comp.  Chap.  vii.  25.  and  1  John  ii.  1.  «2 
Tim.  i.  9.  and  T  itus  i.  2.  Uohnxx.  20.  *Ibid.  xvi.  20. 
h  Luke  xxiv.  25,  26.  32. 

33 


250  THE    BLESSING    OF   JtfDAH.  [sER.  Vltt~ 

is  alive — in  him,  who  was  delivered  for  our  offenses, 
and  was  raised  again  for  our  justification^  And 
though  our  believing  views  and  embraces  of  Christ, 
are  sometimes  interrupted  by  sin,  or  temptation,  or 
unbelief,  in  so  much,  that,  for  a  season,  he  withdraws 
himself  and  is  gone*  yet,  such  is  his  love  for  us, 
that  he  never  utterly  nor  entirely  leaves  or  forsakes 
us;1  and,  having  brought  us  to  understand  and  bewail 
those  evils  in  our  hearts  and  lives,  which  had  occasion- 
ed him  to  withdraw,  he  kindly  and  seasonably  re- 
turns. Thus  it  is,  that,  in  promises,  in  meditations, 
under  Sermons,  and  at  ordinances,  he  manifests 
himself  to  us,  and  not  unto  the  world.m  In  this 
way,  though  ascended  to  heaven,  he  still  visits  his 
believing  ones  upon  earth :  /,  said  he  to  his  disciples , 
will  come  and  see  you,  (which  includes  their  seeing 
of  him  by  faith,)  and  your  heart  shall  rejoice,  and 
your  joy  no  man  takethfrom  you? 

In  due  time  also,  he  comes  in  a  providential  wayr 
to  remove  them,  by  death,  from  the  sorrows  of  earth 
to  the  joys  of  heaven:  /  will  come  again,  saith  he, 
and  receive  you  unto  myself;  that  where  I  am  there 
ye  may  be  also.0  Herein,  he  visits  his  Church  to 
gather  lilies?  And,  finally,  he  will  return  in  person ; 
in  which  he  will  appear  a  second  time ;  though  in  a 
character  and  for  a  purpose  very  different  from  those 
of  his  first  appearance.  At  his  incarnation,  he  ap- 
peared as  the  substitute  of  his  guilty  people,  and  to 
make  satisfaction  to  divine  justice  for  their  sins, 
which,  by  covenant-stipulation,  were  all  placed  to 
his  account ;  but,  at  his  second  coming,  he  will 
appear  as  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead;  and 

'Rom.  iv.  25.      kCant.  v.  5.      ]Heb.  xiii  5.      m  John  xiv.  22. 
»  Ibid  ifi.  23.     *  Ibid.  xiv.      P Cant.  vi.  2. 


SER.  VIII.]  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  251 

though  to  decide  the  fates  of  all  mankind,  yet  special- 
ly to  claim  his  people,  as  his  due  reward  for  what 
he  did  and  suffered  on  their  behalf  at  his  former  ad- 
vent, and  to  put  them  into  the  full  possession  of 
their  heavenly  inheritance ;  preparatory  to  which,  by 
raising  the  bodies  of  the  dead  saints  and  changing 
those  of  the  living,  he  will  fashion  both  like  unto 
his  own  glorious  body,  and  therein  complete  their 
salvation.9  Accordingly,  the  different  objects  of 
his  first  and  second  appearance  on  earth,  are  briefly 
expressed  and  distinguished  thus :  "  Christ"  (at  his 
first  coming)  "was  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many,'' 
even  of  all  the  millions  of  God's  elect ;  "  and  unto 
them  that  look  for  him,''  as  all  true  believers  do, 
"shall  he  appear  the  second  lime,  WITHOUT  SIN 
unto  SALVATION/ 

The  hands  of  Christ,  too,  like  those  of  Judah, 
have  always  been  sufficient  for  him. 

Hand  is  put  for  strength  or  ability  to  perform 
any  specified  work.  Exo.  iv.  1.  The  hands  of  Judah, 
therefore,  might  typify  the  ability  of  Christ  to  accom- 
plish the  salvation  of  God's  elect,  which,  by  cove- 
nant-engagement, devolved  upon  him.  Is.  xlii.  6. 

Being  "the  Son  of  man,  whom  the  Father  made 
strong  for  himself,"  he  had  sufficient  ability  to  satis- 
fy divine  Justice  for  their  sins;  he  "bare  our  sins," 
that  is  suffered  for  them,  "in  his  own  body  on  the 
tree ;"  and  so  "  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us."s  Being,  by  the 
right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having  received 
of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he 
has  sufficient  ability,  as  well  as  authority,  to  regen- 

*  Philip,  iii.  21.  1  Cor.  xv.  51—57.  and  1  Thes.  iv.  15—17. 
r  Heb.  ix.  28.  Comp.  Matt.  xx.  28.  and  Rev.  v.  9.  e  Psal.  Ixxx.  17. 
1  Pet.  ii.  24.  Gal.  iii.  13. 


252  THE    BLESSING    OF    JUDAH.          [sER.  VIII. 

erate  and  convert  them.  Hence  his  people  are  made 
willing  in  the  day  of  his  power*  As  he  is  "  full  of 
grace,5'  his  hands  arc  sufficient 'to  supply  us  with  all 
spiritual  blessings,  with  which  the  Father  hath  bless- 
ed us  in  him.  Accordingly,  "  Of  his  fulness  have 
we  (believers)  all  received.""  Nor  can  his  sufficien- 
cy ever 'fail.  "It  pleased  the  Father  that  in  him 
should  all  fulness  dwell,"  commensurate  to  all  our 
necessities:  "wherefore  he  is  able  also  to  save  them 
to  the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by  him."w  And 
having,  in  his  official  capacity,  as  well  as  in  his 
divine  nature,  "  All  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth," 
his  hands  are  sufficient  to  preserve  all  whom  the 
Father  hath  committed  unto  him :  "  I  give  unto 
them,"  saith  he,  "  eternal  life,  and  they  shall  never 
perish;  neither  shall  any  pluck  them  out  of  my 
hand."x 

Hand  denotes  also  possession,  with  a  right  to 
govern  and  employ  at  will,  whatever  is  possessed. 
See  1  Kings  xi.  12.  Thus  understood,  the  hands 
of  Judah  might  typify  all  persons  and  things  that 
Christ,  by  right  of  possession  and  disposition,  would 
employ  as  instruments  to  promote  the  welfare  of 
his  Kingdom.  And  that,  in  this  sense  too,  his 
hands  are  sufficient  for  him,  can  admit  of  no  doubt; 
for  the  Father  hath  given  to  him,  as  Mediator,  pow- 
er over  all  flesh,  and  hath  delivered  all  things  unto 
him.y  Hence, 

If,  for  the  benefit  of  his  church,  He  is  pleased 
to  employ  the  instrumentality  of  earthly  rulers, 
their  hearts,  and  consequently  their  means  and  their 

t  Acts  ii.  33;  and  Psal.  ex.  3.  u  John  i.  14.  16.  Eph.  i.  3 
w  Col  i.  19.  Heb.  vii.  25.  *  Matt,  xxviii.  18.  and  John  x.  28  >  John 
xviK  2.  Matt  xi.  27. 


SER.  VIII.]          THE    BLESSING    OF    JUDAH.  263 

influence,  are  under  his  control.  "  The  king's  heart 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  as  the  rivers  of  water: 
he  turneth  it  whithersoever,  he  will."  Prov.  xxi.  1. 
To  him,  therefore,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  justly 
ascribed  the  favor  shown  to  Israel,  by  the  success- 
ive Kings  of  Persia.  See  Ezra  vii.  27,  28.  and 
Neh.  iv.  4 — 18.  And  thus,  in  the  latter  day,  either 
as  renewed  by  grace  or  as  constrained  by  Provi- 
dence, Gentile  Kings  shall  become  nursing  fathers 
and  their  Queens  nursing  mothers  to  the  gospel 
church.  Is.  xlix.  23. 

If,  to  prostrate  monarchs  or  to  revolutionize 
governments,  adverse  to  the  extension  of  His  gos- 
pel and  His  visible  kingdom,  He  choose  to  call 
into  requisition  armed  hosts  and  distinguished 
generals,  both  are  His  own  and  must  subserve 
His  design.  All,  in  this  sense,  are  his  servants. 
Psal.  cxix.  91. 

Thus,  through  the  instrumentality  of  Constantine 
and  his  armed  forces,  He  accomplished  the  down- 
fall of  pagan  Rome;  in  doing  which  He  is  supposed 
to  have  opened  the  sixth  apocalyptic  seal.  Rev.  vi. 
12—17. 

In  like  manner,  He  has  greatly  diminished  and 
will  utterly  destroy  the  civil  authority  of  MYSTERY 
BABYLON,  that  great  city  that  reigneth  [Now  per- 
haps we  might  rather  say  that  did  reign]  over  the 
kings  of  the  earth.  Rev.  xvii.  5 — 18. 

By  similar  means,  too,  He  is  reducing  and  will 
finally  exterminate  the  Turkish  empire,  probably 
denoted  by  the  great  river  EUPHRATES,  upon  which, 
in  John's  vision,  the  sixth  angel  poured  out  his  vial. 
If  so,  by  the  waters  of  that  river,  which,  thereby, 
were  dried  up,  may  be  meant  the  Ottoman  armies 


254  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.          [sER.  VlH. 

and  resources,  and  perhaps  their  Mahometan  relig- 
ion also;  that,  continues  the  vision,  the  way  of  the 
kings  of  the  east  might  be  prepared;  that  is,  that 
the  way  might  be  opened  for  the  gospel  to  be  sent 
into  the  eastern  nations.  Rev.  xvi.  12.     Herein,  too, 
the  way  will  be  prepared  for  the  Jews  to  return  to 
their  own  land;  where  many  promises  respecting 
both  their  spiritual  and  their  temporal  prosperity 
remain  to  be  fulfilled.2     In  evacuating  their  land, 
however,  preparatory  to  their  repossessing  it,  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  will  be  so  evident,  that  the  event 
is  predicted  by  an  allusion  to  the  dividing  of  the 
Red  sea,  called  the  tongue  of^the  Egyptian  sea,  for 
their  safe  passage  across  its  channel;  and,  to  the 
draining  of  the  Euphrates  by  seven  canals,  for  the 
entrance  of  Cyrus  into  Babylon,  that,  taking  it,  he 
might  favor  Israel.     Is.  xi.  15.     For,  although  the 
latter  was  a  work  of  art,  it  was,  nevertheless,  perform- 
ed according  to  prophecy,  and  therefore,  no  doubt, 
by  divine  direction.8 

Nor  are  the  angels  of  heaven  any  less  at  his  com- 
mand. "Are  they  not  all  ministering  Spirits  sent 
forth,"  under  Christ  their  Head,  "to  minister  for 
them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation  ?"b 

The  elect,  as  such,  are  all  heirs ;  wherefore,  the 
words  "who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation,''  must  re- 
spect their  calling  and  open  justification,  wherein 
they  are  said  to  be  made  heirs,  that  is  manifested  to 
be  such,  according  to  the  hope  of  eternal  life.  Titus 
iii.  7.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  ministry  of 
angels  is  employed  for  their  preservation  while  in  a 
carnal  state.  By  this  agency  probably  it  is,  that 

z  Ezek.  xxxvi  and  xxxvii  chapters ;  and  Amos  ix.  14,  15.     a  Is. 
X!T.  27.  Jer.  1.  38.    b  Heb.  i.  14. 


JBER.  VJI1.J          THE  BLESSING   OF  JUDAU.  255 

many  of  them,  in  childhood  or  afterward,  and  even 
amid  a  course  of  infidelity  or  immorality,  are,  as 
it  were,  miraculously  snatched  or  unexpectedly  rais- 
ed from  threatening  death. 

The  saints,  during  their  pilgrimage  on  earth,  are 
constantly  liable  to  innumerable  injuries  ;  but  "  the 
angel  of  the  Lord,"  Christ  himself,  by  the  ministry 
of  created  angels,  "encampeth  round  about  them 
that  fear  him,  and  delivereth  them."  Psal.  xxxiv.  7. 
Comp.  Is.  Ixiii  9.  By  an  angel,  Peter  was  deliver- 
ed out  of  prison.0  And  probably  the  earthquake, 
by  means  of  which  Paul  and  Silas  experienced  a 
like  deliverance,  was  produced  by  angelic  agency  .d 
By  the  ministry  of  angels,  the  host  sent  by  the  king 
of  Syria  to  take  Elisha,  were  smitten  with  blindness; 
whereupon  the  prophet  led  them  into  the  midst  of 
Samaria,  where,  their  eyes  being  opened,  they  saw 
themselves  entirely  in  the  power  of  Israel  ;  but  were 
spared  through  the  counsel  of  that  very  prophet, 
whose  life  they  had  sought.  2  Kings  vi.  11  —  23.* 

By  angels,  too,  the  souls  of  the  saints,  whom  they 
have  attended  during  life,  are  conveyed  to  heaven,  at 
death  :  "  The  beggar"  (Lazarus)  "  died,  and  was 
carried  by  the  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom."  Luke 
xvi.  22. 

It  is  probable  also,  that,  by  the  ministry  of  angels, 

God,  in  many  instances,  destroys  the  lives  of  those 

who  obstinately  persevere  in  their  efforts  to  injure 

his  people.     Thus  when  Herod  stretched  forth  his 

8  Acts  xii.  7—11.         d  Ibib.  xvi. 


*  What  a  mercy  it  is  when  God  opens  the  eyes  of  persecutors 
any  where  short  of  hell!  And  when  he  does  so,  let  those  whom 
they  have  persecuted,  after  the  example  of  the  prophet,  show 
them  favor. 


THii    BLESSING   OF   JUDAH,          [s£K.  VIII* 

hand  to  vex  certain  of  the  church,  though  permit- 
ted to  kill  James,  and  to  imprison  Peter,  and  though 
afterward  idolized  by  his  admirers,  yet,  thereupon 
immediately  the  angel  of  the  Lord  smote  him,  with 
some  foul  disease,  and  he  was  eaten  of  worms  and 
gave  up  the  Ghost.  Acts  xii.  1,  2,  3,  4,  5.  23. 
Thus  also,  when  the  Assyrians  were  about  to  be- 
siege Jerusalem,  that  night,  the  very  night,  it  should 
seem,  before  the  contemplated  attack,  the  angel  of 
the  LORD  went  out  and  smote  in  the  camp  of  the 
Assyrians  an  hundred,  four  score  and  five  thousand  : 
and  when  they  (the  survivors)  arose  early  in  the 
morning,  behold,  they  (the  185  000)  were  all  dead 
corpses.  2  Kings  xix.  35.  Let  persecutors  tremble. 

Angels,  too,  are  employed,  and  especially  in  times 
of  persecution,  to  influence  rulers  and  deliberative 
bodies  to  favor  those  whom  God  will  favor,  and  to 
comfort  those  whom  he  loves.  Thus  the  angel 
Gabriel  was  employed  twenty-one  days  at  the  court 
of  Persia  to  incline  the  king  and  his  nobles  to  favor 
the  Jews,  and  that  he  might  bear  a  consoling  mes- 
sage to  the  beloved  Daniel.  In  his  labor,  and  as  the 
occasion  of  its  prolongation,  Gabriel  was  withstood 
by  the  prince  of  the  kingdom  of  Persia,  that  is,  by 
Satan,  the  prince  of  this  world ;  "  but  lo,"  saith  the 
angel,  "  Michael,  one  (or  the  first*)  of  the  prin- 
ces" Christ  himself,  who  is  the  Head  and  Lord 
of  angels,  "  came  and  helped  me."  Hence  complete 
success.  Dan.  x.  2 — 21.  Compare  Chap.  viii.  15 — 19. 

There  is  also  another  description  of  instruments 
employed  by  Christ,  to  wit,  gospel-ministers.  By 
these  chiefly,  he  propagates  his  doctrine — gath- 
ers his  redeemed — and  enlarges  his  visible  em- 
See  Parkhurst,  under  nrv,  No.  2. 


SEH.  Vlll.]  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  257 

pire.*  Nor  can  he,  in  these,  ever  be  deficient ;  for, 
having  all  grace  and  all  gifts,  both  natural  and 
spiritual,  in  his  possession,  he  constantly  qualifies  as 
many  for  this  work,  as  he  is  pleased  to  employ  in  it. 
Hence,  when  about  to  do  much  in  this  way,  he  raises 
up  an  adequate  number  of  these  workmen.  Accord- 
ingly, under  a  prophetic  view,  both  of  the  early  and 
the  latter  times  of  the  gospel,  the  psalmist  exclaimed, 
"  The  Lord  gave  the  word  :"  great  was  the  compa- 
ny of  those  that  published  it.  Psal.  Ixviii.  11.  Never- 
theless, for  this,  as  for  every  other  favor,  he  will 
be  inquired  of  by  the  house  of  Israel,  the  church, 
to  do  it  for  them :  "  Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of 
the  harvest,  that  he  will  send  forth  laborers  into  his 
harvest."  Matt.  ix.  38. 

Means  too,  as  well  as  agents,  are  all  at  the  com- 
mand of  Zion's  King.  "  The  silver  is  mine  and  the 
gold  is  mine,  saith  the  LORD  of  hosts."  Hagg.  ii.  8. 
And  by  his  sovereign  Providence,  the  occasions  and 
means  of  national  intercourse  are  all  rendered  sub- 
servient to  his  cause.  For  while  the  rulers  and 
merchants  of  all  nations  are  accomplishing  their 
respective  objects,  their  ships  serve  as  transports  to 
convey  the  missionaries  of  the  cross  and  the  Scrip- 
tures of  truth  to  destitute  millions.  Thus,  whatever 
was  the  object  of  Hezekiah's  embassy  to  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, it  occasioned  an  opportunity  for  the  pro- 
phet Jeremiah  to  send  an  inspired  letter  to  the  cap- 
tives in  Babylon.  See  Jer.  xxix.  1 — 3. 

Now  all  these  things  taken  into  view,  who  can 
doubt  that  the  hands  of  Christ,  as  Mediator,  are 
sufficient  for  him  ? 

Like  Judah,  moreover,  Christ  had  the  Father's 

*  These  are  the  angels,  or  messengers,  meant  in  Matt.  xxiv.  31. 

34 


258  tHE  BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.          [SER. 

assurance  that  he  would  be  a  help  to  him  from  his 
enemies ;  and  which,  in  his  human  nature,  he  receiv- 
ed and  realized,  while,  "  in  the  days  of  his  flesh," 
he  was  subject  to  innocent  infirmities,  and  was 
assailed  by  Satan  and  wicked  men.6  In  a  word,  he 
had  the  Father's  concurrence  at  all  times  and  in  all 
things:  "I  am  not  alone,"  said  he,  "because  the 
Father  is  with  me."f 

But,  as  this  prophecy,  in  its  typical  signification, 
is  applicable  to  Christ,  so  also, 

II.  To  his  church.  Here/  as  well  as  in  regard 
to  the  Reubenites, 

1.  The  name  of  the  progenitor,  descending  with 
the  tribe,  claims  a  thought.  Judah,  from  nr  Yadah, 
to  praise  and  rv  Yah,  the  Lord,  signifies  the  praise 
of  the  Lord.  Such  is  the  church.  That  she  is 
chosen,  redeemed  and  sanctified,  is  all  To  the 
praise  of  the  glory  of  his  grace,  wherein  he  hath 
made  us  accepted  in  the  Beloved.*  His  design  in 
giving  her  a  visible  existence  in  the  world,  was  the 
promotion  of  his  own  declarative  glory:  This  people, 
saith  he,  have  I  formed  for  myself;  they  shall  show 
forth  my  praise*  And  hence  the  reason  of  that 
apostolic  doxology,  "Unto  him  be  glory  in  the 
churchy  by  Jesus  Christ,  throughout  all  ages,  world 
without  end  ;"  and  to  which,  with  the  apostle,  all  the 
saints  devoutly  respond,  "  AMEN."1 

The  descent  of  the  progenitor's  name  with  his 
tribe,  suggests  also  another  thought ;  namely,  that 
so,  under  the  gospel,  believers  are  justly  called 
Christians,  after  CHRIST,  their  spiritual  progenitor ; 
and  that  for  a  better  reason  than  is  common  to 

e  Is.  1.  7—9.  xlix.  S.  and  Heb.  V.  7.  f  John  xvi.  32.  Comp. 
Chap.  viii.  16.  g  Eph.  i.  6.  h  Is  xliii.  21.  i  Eph.  iii.  21. 


SEE.  Vllf.]         THE    BLESSING    OP    JUDAH.  259 

nominal  Christendom.  CHRIST  signifies  anointed, 
as  ho  was  with  the  oil  of  gladness*  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  He,  as  Mediator,  received  in  all  his 
fulness  of  grace  and  gifts  j1  and  "of  his  fulness  have 
we"  (believers)  "all  received,"1  and,  therefore,  are 
anointed  also.  "  Ye,"  saith  an  apostle  to  believers, 
"have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One,"  that  is,  the 
Spirit  from  Christ;  and  again,  "the  anointing  which 
ye  have  received  of  him  abideth  in  you  &c.m* 
This  anointing  constitutes  persons  Christians,  and 
an  open  profession  of  the  doctrine  and  a  consistent 
walk  in  the  precepts  of  Christ,  manifests  them  to  be 
such.  The  former  gives  the  being,  the  latter  ex- 
hibits the  character  of  Christians.  Without  the 
former,  none  can  be  saved  ;  without  the  latter,  none 
are  entitled  to  membership  in  a  gospel-church.8 

k  Psal.  xlv.  7.      i  John  iii.  34.      m  1  John  ii.  20  27. 


*  CHRIST  (Xf  IO-TOS)  in  the  N.  Test,  answers  to  MESSIAH,  (rrtBro)  in 
the  Old  Test.  See  Dan.  ix.  25,  26.  Accordingly,  Messias,  (Mt«r<r/*<) 
which  is  evidently  the  Heb.  Messiah,  (rp#o)  with  a  greek  termina- 
tion, is  interpreted  to  be  The  Christ,  (o  Xgtrroe.)  John  i.  42.  (Eng. 
Transl.  Ver.  41.)  The  root  of  each  (Heb.  n^D  mashach,  Gr. 
Xpiu  chrio)  means  to  annoint.  The  word,  therefore,  in  either 
language,  signifies  anointed,  and,  when  used  as  a  proper  name 
and  with  the  article,  THE  ANOINTED,  or  ONE  ANOINTED.  As  given  to 
the  divine  MEDIATOR,  it  imports  his  being  anointed  with  the 
reality  of  the  typical  oil,  even  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
power.  Acts.  x.  38.  Comp.  Psal.  ii.  2.  xlv.  7,  8.  Is.  Ixi  1.  Luke 
iv.  18.  and  Heb.  i.  9.  Moreover,  as  the  ceremony  of  anointing 
with  oil  was  used  in  the  inauguration  of  kings,  prophets  and  priests, 
(1  Sam.  xvi.  12,  13.  1  Kings  xix.  15,  16.  Exo.  xl.  12—15.)  the 
Father's  unction  of  the  Mediator  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  implies 
that,  by  covenant-compact,  these  three  offices  are  eminently 
united  in  him.  See  Psal.  ii.  2.  6.  Deut.  xviii.  15.  Acts  iii.  20  — 
23.  Heb.  i.  1,  2—  Ibid.  iii.  1.  iv.  14. 

n  John  iii.  3,  7.  Acts  ii.  41.  47.     1  Cor.  v.  13.  Titus  iii.  10. 


260  THE  BLESSING  OF  JUDAH.       [SER<  vm, 

2.  Like  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  church  is  a  praying 
people.  The  Holy  Spirit,  which  all  her  living  mem- 
bers have  received  from  Christ,  her  Head,  is  in  them 
the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplications.0  Taught  by 
this  Spirit  to  know  their  wants  and  made  to  realize 
their  unworthiness  and  their  dependence  upon  the 
favor  of  God  in  Christ,  they  live  in  some  good  de- 
gree, a  life  of  thanksgiving,  for  blessings  received, 
and  of  prayer,  for  blessings  needed.  And  though 
our  heavenly  Father  perfectly  knows  all  our  neces- 
sities and  has  made  a  correspondent  provision  for  us 
in  Christ— and  though  his  revelation  of  this  provi- 
sion and  his  promises  assuring  us  of  seasonable  sup- 
plies from  it,  should  relieve  us  from  all  distressing 
anxiety,  he,  nevertheless,  will  have  us  to  come  to 
him  in  prayer,  declaring  our  wants  and  pleading  his 
promises.  Accordingly,  an  inspired  apostle,  ad- 
dressing believers,  says,  "  Be  careful  for  nothing ; 
but  in  every  thing,"  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual, 
"  by  prayer  and  supplication,"*  "with  thanksgiv- 
ing," (for  the  fulness  treasured  up  in  Christ,  for 
access  to  the  throne  by  him,  and  for  the  many 
great  and  precious  promises  encouraging  their 
hope,)  "let  your  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God."p  Nor  can  their  prayers  and  supplications 
thus  offered,  be  unavailing.  Their  voice,  like 
that  of  Judah,  finds  audience  with  the  LORD.  "Ask" 
said  Christ  to  his  disciples,  "and  it  shall  be  given 
you ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find ;  knock,  and  it  shall 
be  opened  unto  you."q 

Moreover,  as  the  tribe  of  Judah  always  had  some 
who  were  specially  praying  persons,  the  same  may 

*  By  prayer  may  be  meant  the  petitions  made,  and  by  suppli- 
cation,  the  pleas  and  entreaties  used. 

0  Zech.  xii.  10.      P  Philip,  iv.  6.      q  Matt,  vii<  7. 


SER.  VIII.]         THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAIt.  261 

be  said  of  the  church.  She  has  always  had  some, 
even  in  the  worst  of  times,  who  have  sighed  and 
cried  on  account  of  abominations  committed  within 
her  enclosures,  and  for  her  purification  and  pros- 
perity. And  such  are  marked  for  safety,  whatever 
may  become  of  those  who  are  at  ease  in  ZionJ 

3.  Was  the  tribe  of  Judah  almost  constantly  en- 
gaged in  war!  So  is  the  church. 

She  is  so  by  reason  of  that  internal  conflict,  which 
she  almost  incessantly  feels  between  nature  and 
grace,  flesh  and  spirit  ;s  and  hence,  though,  in 
relative  dignity  she  is  the  Shulamite,*  yet  in  herself 
and  in  her  own  esteem  she  is  crjnnn  nSriDD  chim- 


rEzek.  ix.  4.  2  Tim.  ii.  19.  Rev.  ix.  4.  and  xiv.  1.  Amos  vi.  1. 
.  Rona.  vii.  23.  Gal.  v.  17. 


Shulamith,  of  which  shulamite  is  formed,  is  derived  from 
Shalem  or  Salem,  an  ancient  name  of  Jerusalem.  See 
Gen.  xiv.  18.  and  Psal.  Ixxvi.  2.  The  church,  therefore,  as  being 
the  people  of  Spiritual  Jerusalem,  may  be  called  the  Shulamite,  as 
the  woman  of  Shunem  is  called  the  Shunammite.  2  Kings  iv.  12. 
She  is  comely  as  Jerusalem.  Cant.  vi.  4.  Compare  Gal.  iv.  26. 
and  Heb.  xii.  22.  Rather,  however,  I  think  rva1?^  Shulamith  is 
the  feminine  of  HD1?^  Solomon,  and  that  the  church  bears  this 
name  because  she  is  the  spouse  of  Christ,  the  antitype  of  Solo- 
mon. For  like  reasons,  she  is  also  called  by  some  of  his  other 
names.  1  Cor.  xii.  12.  and  Jer.  xxxiii.  16.  Compared  with  Chap. 
xxiii.  6.  The  same,  too,  has  obtained  in  civil  communities. 
Among  the  Romans,  for  instance,  if  a  man's  name  was  Caius  his 
wife  was  called  Caia.  See  Durham,  on  the  place,  and  Calmet, 
under  Shulamite. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  also,  that  as  both  names,  Solomon  and 
Shulamith,  are  from  one  root,  aSt?  Shalom,  so  "both  He 
(Christ)  that  sanctifieth,  and  they  (believers)  that  are  sanctified 
fied  are  all  of  one  —  one  God  and  Father,  (John  xx.  17.)  —  one 
election,  Is.  xlii.  1.  Eph.  i.  3,  4.)  —  one  covenant,  (Psal.  1.  5.)  — 
one  family,  (Eph.  iii.  14,  15.)  —  one  Spirit,  (1  Cor.  vi.  17.)  —  and 
one  inheritance,  the  elect  being  heirs  of  God  and  joint-heirs  with 
Christ.  Rom.  viii.  17.  See  Heb.  ii.  11. 


262  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  [sER.  VIII* 

cholath  hamahanaim,]  as  it  were  the  company  of 
two  armies  engaged  in  battle.  Compare  Gen. 
xxxii.  2.  (In  Heb.  ver.  3.)  where  the  word  Mahanaim 
is  used  in  the  same  sense,  and  to  which  the  speaker, 
in  this  place,  probably  had  an  allusion.4 

The  true  church  is  also  continually  opposed  by 
hosts  of  mere  nominal  professors.  These  carna- 
lists,  being  like  Ishmael,  born  only  after  the  fleshy 
that  is,  having  no  religion  but  what  they  have 
by  fleshly  descent  from  members  of  the  visible 
church,  or  have  acquired  by  exertion  of  their  own 
fleshly  or  natural  abilities,  constantly  persecute 
those,  who,  like  Isaac,  are  born  after  the  spirit? 

This  evil  world,  too,  is  full  of  enmity  and  opposi- 
tion to  the  saints  :  "  If  ye  were  of  the  world,"  said 
Christ  to  his  disciples,  "  the  world  would  love  his 
own ;  but  because  ye  are  not  of  the  world,  but  I 
have  chosen  you,"  and,  accordingly,  have  called  you 
by  grace,  "  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the  world 
hateth  you."w 

And  especially  the  devil,  who  is  styled  the  God 
of  this  world,  and  who  is  the  father  of  lies — the 
patron  of  hypocrites — and  the  exciter  of  corrupt 
nature  in  believers,  is  constantly  employing  his  pol- 
icy and  his  influence  against  the  church.  As  a 
roaring  lion  he  walketh  about,  in  the  persons  of 
seducers  and  persecutors,  seeking  whom  he  may 
devour,  and  whom,  therefore,  we  are  exhorted  to 
resist  stedfast  in  the  faith*  He  is  emphatically  the 
accuser,  that  is  of  the  saints  ;  and  a  false  one,  as  the 
word  implies.  He  charges  them  with  the  guilt  of 
those  evil  thoughts,  which  he  injects  into  their  minds, 

-  'Cant,  vi.  13.  In  the  Heb.  Chap  vii.  Ver.  1.  "Gal.  iv  29. 
w  John  xv.  19.  *  1  Pet.  v.  8,  9. 


SER.  VIII.]        THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAU.  263 

but  which  they  abhor  ;  and  burdens  their  consciences 
by  accusing  them  of  sins,  for  which  they  have  had 
the  manifestation  of  pardon.  But  chiefly  he  bears 
this  name,  because,  by  means  of  false  witnesses,  he 
accuses  the  saints  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors  of 
which  they  were  never  guilty.  In  this  way,  he  pro- 
cured the  crucifixion  of  Christ  himself/  and  the 
martyrdom  of  his  servant  Stephen  :z  and,  persisting 
in  his  rage  against  Christ,  has,  in  the  same  way, 
procured  the  martyrdom  of  thousands  of  his  disciples 
under  pagan  and  papal  Rome.  Nor  can  it  be  just- 
ly ascribed  to  any  thing  but  the  restraints  of  civil 
government,  providentially  prohibiting  it,  that  any  of 
the  undisguised  advocates  of  sovereign  grace  have 
escaped  a  similar  fate.  For  that  satanic  malice 
which  moves  the  tongue  and  the  pen  of  slander 
against  us,  would,  if  not  restrained,  consign  us  to 
prison  and  to  death. 

Satan,  observe,  is  the  accuser,  not  of  unbelievers> 
whom  God,  in  his  law,  accuses  and  condems,  but  of 
believers,  whom  God,  in  his  Son,  justifies  freely  by 
his  grace.*  And  as  this  adversary  brings  his  false 
accusations  against  believers,  by  witnesses  who  im- 
piously appeal  to  God  for  the  truth  of  their  allega- 
tions, so  he  is  said  to  accuse  them  BEFORE  GoD.b 
His  accusations,  however,  though  for  a  time  they 
may  answer  his  purpose,  so  far  as  to  worry  those 
whom  he  accuses  —  to  furnish  infidels  and  profligates 
with  matter  for  scoffs  and  songsc  —  to  keep  weak- 
minded  professors  in  painful  suspense  —  and,  to 
affright  many  of  the  world  from  attending  where  the 


xxvi.  59—62.  z  Acts  vi.  11—15.  and  vii.  54—60. 
«  Gal.  iii.  10.  Rom.  iii.  24.  b  Rev.  xii.  10.  c  3  Pet  iii.  3—7.  Psal. 
Ixix.  12. 


264  THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDA11.         [sER.  VIII- 

truth  is  preached — yet,  eventually,  must  all  be  over- 
ruled for  God's  glory  and  Zion's  good.  "  Surely," 
said  the  Psalmist  to  God,  "the  wrath  of  man,"  thus 
excited  by  Satan,  "  shall  praise  thee :  the  remain- 
der of  wrath  shalt  thou  restrain."d 

4.  Was   the   tribe   of  Judah  by  this  prophecy, 
assured  of  hands  sufficient  for  them  ?     In  like  man- 
ner, the  church  is  assured  of  ministerial  laborers, 
and  of  all  needful   strength,  both   numerical   and 
spiritual.     By  promise  and  prophecy  the  Lord  has 
assured  her  that  he  will  give  her  pastors  according 
to  his  own  heart,  who  shall  feed  her  with  knowledge 
and  with  understanding?  that  he  will  increase  her 
with  men  like  aflocR?  and  that  he  will  abundantly 
Hess  her  provision,  and  satisfy  her  poor  with  bread.* 
Her  supplies  of  grace  and  strength  are  all  treasured 
up  in  Christ,  her  mystical  Head,  from  which  all  the 
body,  by  joints   and   bands,   having    nourishment 
ministered,  and  knit  together,  increaseth  with  the 
increase  of  God.h     With  him  on  her  side,  who  has 
all  blessings,  temporal  and  spiritual,  in  his  gift,  and 
all  agents,  good  and  bad,  under  his  control,  what 
can  she  want — what  need  she  fear? 

5.  Was  this  tribe  encouraged,  by  the  prophecy 
before  as,  to  expect,  that,  trusting  in  God,  they  should 
find  him  a  help  to  them  from  their  enemies  ?     Much 
more  is  the  church  encouraged  to  expect  the  same 
favor.     "Fear  thou  not,"    saith  her  covenant-God 
to  her ;  "  for  I  am  with  thee :  be  not  dismayed,  for 
I  am  thy  God  :  I  will  strengthen  thee ;  yea,  I  will  help 
thee ;  yea,  I  will  uphold  thee  with  the  right  hand  of 
my  righteousness.     Behold,  all  they  that  were  in- 

rf  Psal.  Uxvi.  10.     eJer.  iii.  15.      *"  Ezek.  xxxvi.  37.      *Psal. 
cxxxii.  15.    h  Col.  ii.  19. 


SER.  VIII.]          THE    BLESSING    OF   JUDAH.  265 

censed  against  thee,  shall  be  ashamed  and  confound- 
ed :  they  shall  be  as  nothing ;  and  they  that  strive 
with  thee  shall  perish."  Is.  xli.  10,  11,  &c.  See  also 
Chap,  xliii.  2.  and  li.  12—15.  «  The  Lord  of  hosts 
is  with  us ;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge."  Psal. 
xlvi.  11.  And,  "If  God  be  for  us,  who"  or  what, 
with  success,  "can  be  against  us?"  Rom.  viii.  31. 
Help  from  God,  however,  against  our  enemies  with- 
in or  without,  can  be  justly  expected  only  in  the 
diligent  use  of  appointed  means.  It  is,  recollect, 
"  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord,"  in  prayer,  in  read- 
ing and  hearing  his  word,  and  in  the  exercise  of  faith 
in  his  perfections  and  promises,  that  "  shall  renew 
their  strength  &c."  Is.  xl.  31. 

Concerning  the  church,  behold,  in  the  light  of  our 
subject, 

1.  Her  unity  as  the  one  mystical  body  of  Christ, 
her  mystical  Head.     For  as  typical  Judah,  though 
but  one,  had  many  members,  so  is  mystical  Christ. 
1  Cor.  xii.  12. 

2.  The  excellence  of  her  condition,  when  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  tribe  of  Judah.     This  tribe 
had,  by  death,  lost  its  head.     Not  so  the  church. 
Her  Head,  indeed,  was  put  to  death  in  the  flesh; 
yet  He  was  not,  like  Judah,  left  under  the  power  of 
death ;  but  was  quickened  by  the  Spirit ;  and  being 
raised  from  the  dead,  he  dieth  no  more;  death  hath 
no  more  dominion  over  him.     Hence  the  assurance 
of  grace  and  glory,  which  he,  the  Head,  gives  to 
believers,  his  members :  Because  I  live,  saith  he 
to  them,  ye  shall  live  also.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  Rom.  vi.  9. 
and  John  xiv.  19. 

3.  Her  certain  perpetuity,  by  the  accession  of 
converts.  She  is  the  household  of  faith,  the  family 

35 


266  THE    BLESSING   OF   JUDAH.          [SER.  Vili. 

of  believers  in  Christ ;  but  Christ  is  SHILOH,  and 
unto  him  SHALL  the  gathering  of  the  people  be. 
Gen.  xlix.  10.  Comp.  Is.  xi.  10.  and  li.  11. 

4.  The  indubitable  defeat  of  all  her  enemies ; 
for  all  who  are  the  enemies  of  the  church  are  the 
enemies  of  Christ  who  is  the  LION  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah.  Rev.  v.  5.  And 

Finally,  the  animating  prospect  of  all  her  living 
members.  For,  however  poor  and  afflicted,  tempted 
and  tried,  hated  and  persecuted,  they  may  be  during 
their  warfare,  yet,  at  the  end  of  the  war,  the  end  of 
their  militant  state,  like  the  men  of  Judah,  they  re- 
tire from  the  field,  crowned  with  victory,  and  return 
to  their  people,  to  those  of  the  heaven-born  family, 
gone  home  before  them.  Thus  encouraged,  let  us, 
my  beloved  brethren  and  sisters,  not  be  slothful,  but 
followers  of  them,  who  through  faith  and  patience 
inherit  the  promises.  Heb.  vi.  12. 


SERMON  IX. 


THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVI.    HIS  URIM  AN0 
THUMMIM. 


DEUT.  xxxin.  8—11. — And  of  Levi  he  said,  Let  thy  Thummim 
and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  whom  thou  didst  prove  at 
Massah,  and  with  whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meri* 
bah;  who  said  unto  his  father  and  to  his  mother,  I  have  not 
seen  him;  neither  did  he  acknowledge  his  brethren,  nor  knew 
„  his  own  children:  for  they  have  observed  thy  word,  and  kept  thy 
covenant.  They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy  Judgments,  and  Israel 
thy  law:  they  shall  put  incense  before  thee,  and  whole  burnt 
sacrifice  upon  thine  altar.  Bless,  Lord,  his  substance,  and  ac« 
cept  the  work  of  his  hands :  smite  through  the  loins  of  them 
that  rise  against  him,  and  of  them  that  hate  him,  that  they  rise 
not  again. 


THE  tribe  of  Levi,  like  that  of  Judah,  made  a 
very  conspicuous  figure  among  the  thousands  of 
Israel.  From  Judah  preceded  their  kings;  from 
Levi,  their  priests. 

The  blessing  here  pronounced  upon  this  tribe,  as 
you  must  have  observed  in  hearing  it  read,  is  rich 
and  various,  including  many  honors  and  privileges ; 
and  though  it  implied,  that  the  Levites  in  common, 
and  the  priests  in  particular,  would  have  much  labor 
to  perform  and  much  opposition  to  encounter,  it  also 
assured  them,  that  their  services  should  be  divinely 
accepted  and  their  enemies  divinely  vanquished, 

At  present,  however,  we  can  attend  only  to  so 
much  of  this  blessing  as  is  expressed  in  the  first 

36 


268  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [sER.  IX. 

verse  of  the  text,  which  reads  thus:  And  of  Levi  he 
said,  that  is,  Moses,  in  a  way  of  prayer  to  God,  and 
in  a  way  of  prophetic  instruction  to  Israel,  said,  Let 
thy  Thummim  and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One, 
whom  thou  didst  prove  at  Massah,  and  with  whom 
thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meribah. 

The  literal  interpretation  which  I  may  be  enabled 
to  give  of  this  part  of  the  text,  will  necessarily 
accompany  the  investigation  proper  to  be  attempted, 
respecting  the  THUMMIM  and  URIM.  These  are 
first  mentioned  in  Exo.  xxviii.  30.  where  the  words 
stand  in  the  contrary  order — URIM  and  THUMMIM,  as 
they  also  do  in  Levit.  viii.  8.  Ezra  ii.  63.  and  Neh. 
vii.  65 ;  and  which,  besides  our  text,  are  the  only 
places  in  which  the  words  occur  together.  Twice, 
however,  we  find  URIM  put  for  both.  See  JNum.  xxvii. 
21  and  1  Sam.  xxviii.  6. 

Now,  concerning  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  (for  in 
this  order  I  shall  consider  them,)  let  us  inquire, 

First,  What  they  were.  Here  it  becomes  us  to 
procede  with  great  modesty;  these  sacred  articles 
being  confessedly  buried  in  the  depths  of  antiquity 
and  covered  with  the  lumber  of  talmudic  tradition. 
The  Talmudists  say  that  king  Josiah  (I  suppose 
they  mean  in  prospect  of  troubles  then  coming  upon 
the  nation)  hid  the  Urim  and  Thummim  under 
ground,  in  a  cave  before  prepared  by  Solomon,  and 
that  the  Jews  on  their  return  from  Babylon,  could 
not  find  them;*  and  accordingly  the  same  writers 
mention  them  as  one  of  Jive  things  which  they  affirm 
to  have  been  wanting  in  the  second  temple  ;f  to  wit, 

*  See  Cunseus,  De  Republica  Hebraorum,  1.  1.  c.  14. 
f  Lightfoot's  Works,  Vol.  1.  p.  408. 


SKR.   IX.]  MIS    UKIM   AND    TMUMMIM.  269 

—  1.  The  Ark  with  the  Mercy-seat  and  Cherubim  — 
2.  The  Shecheenah*  —  3.  The  fire  from  heaven  which 
consumed  the  sacrifices.  —  4.  The  Holy  Ghost,  as  the 
Spirit  of  Prophecy.  And  —  5.  The  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim- 

What  became  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  we 
cannot  satisfactorily  ascertain  ;  but  whether  they 
were  hid  by  Josiah,  or  any  other  person,  or  burnt  or 
otherwise  destroyed  or  lost,  during  the  invasion  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  destruction  of  the  temple  by  the 
Chaldeans,  it  is  manifest  from  Ezra  ii.  63,  that  the 
Jews  were  without  them  when  they  returned  from 
Babylon  ;  nor  does  it  appear  by  any  inspired  record, 
that  they  were  ever  used  under  the  second  temple. 

Hence,  in  process  of  time,  the  Jews  lost  the  true 
idea  of  them.  This  is  evident  from  the  diversity  of 
opinion  respecting  them,  which  has  obtained  among 
their  learned  men.  Several  of  their  distinguished 
Rabbies,  among  whom  are  David  Kimclii\  and 
Aben  Ezra,\  have  candidly  confessed,  that  they  did 
not  know  what  they  were  ;  and  their  less  diffident 
brethren  have  been  much  divided  in  opinion  on  the 
subject.  Most  of  them,  it  is  true,  after  the  Targum 
of  Jonathan,  have  supposed  that  the  Urim  and 


from  p#  Shakan  to  dwell,  denotes  the  Divine  Presence, 
or  Majesty  dvVelling  in  a  luminous  cloud  in  the  tabernacle  and 
temple,  and  which  gave  to  them  a  peculiar  sanctity.  Exo.  xxix. 
43.  1  Kings  viii.  10,  11.  This  cloud,  though  it  occasionally  ap- 
peared in  other  places,  usually  hovered  over  the  Mercy-seat,  the 
lid  of  the  Ark.  Hence  JEHOVAH,  of  whose  presence  it  was  the 
symbol,  promised  to  appear  between  the  two  cherubims,  one  of 
which  stood  upon  each  end  of  the  Mercy-seat,  upon  the  Ark.  Exo. 
xxv.  17  —  22.  and  Levit.  xvi.  2.  Thence  also  Moses  heard  his 
directive  voice.  Num.  vii.  89.  See  Ling.  Sacra,  under  pp. 

fin  lib.Shorash.  f  On  Exo.  xxviii.  5.  30. 


270  THE    BLESSING    OF  LEVI.  sER.  IX. 


Thummim  were  nothing  other  than  the  awful  name 
JEHOVAH,  engraven  on  a  piece  of  beaten  gold  and 
put  into  the  Breast-plate.*  And  those  of  them 
who,  on  this  question,  have  differed  from  Jonathan, 
have  differed  no  less  from  each  other. 

Nor  have  Christian  interpreters,  on  this  subject, 
been  any  more  harmonious.  Those  of  them,  whose 
opinions  respecting  these  articles,  have  been  most 
extensively  adopted,  it  may  be  proper  to  mention. 
Calving  it  would  seem,  thought  the  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim were  two  remarkable  characters  in  the  breast- 
plate, of  whose  properties  or  uses,  these  two  names 
were  expressive.  Cornelius  &  Lapide  supposed 
them  to  be  simply  the  two  words  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim engraven  on  a  stone  or  a  plate  of  Gold,  and 
placed  in  the  pectoral,  that  is,  in  the  breast-plate.  J 
Christopher  de  Castro  §  and  Spencer  \\  imagined 
they  were  two  little  images,  such  as  the  Teraphim  ; 

*  This  name  of  the  divine  Being,  the  Jews  think  could  never 
be  lawfully  pronounced  by  any  but  the  high-priest,  nor  by  him, 
any  where  but  in  the  holy  of  holies.  Hence,  in  reading  the  Bible, 
they  substitute  for  it,  Adonai,  Lord,  or  Elohim,  God.  And  when 
occasion  requires  that  they  be  understood  to  mean  the  name 
JE-HOVAH,  they  call  it  KH3DH  OJ?  Shem-hamphorash,  that  is,  the 
name  manifested,  or  the  name  distinguished,  or  the  name  explana- 
tory. The  Hellenists,  those  Jews  who  speak  the  Greek  language, 
instead  of  Shem-hamphorash,  use  the  Greek  name  rrrf  <ey^«n»^aTd» 
Tetragrammaton,  the  name  of  four  letters;  Jehovah,  in  Hebrew* 
Consisting  only  of  four  letters  ;  to  wit,  »  yod,  n  he,  i  vau,  n  Ae» 

f  In  Exo.  xxviii.  4» 

$  See  in  Rivet,  in  Exo.  xxviii.  30.  Lapide  was  a  learned  Jesuit, 
Who  devoted  himself  to  the  critical  elucidation  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  whose  works  amount  to  10  Vols.  folio.  He  died  at  Rome,  in 
1637,  aged  71.  Moferi's  Histor.  Diet. 

§  In  ftivet,  in  Exo.  *xviii.  30.  II  De  Urim    &  Thummim. 


X.'J  HIS   URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  271 

which,  being  placed  in  the  folds  of  the  breast-plate, 
gave  articulate  answers  to  the  questions  put  to  them 
by  the  high-priest.  Arias  Montanus,  Willtt,  and 
others,  adopted  the  opinion  of  Rabbi  Menachem* 
that  the  IJrim  and  Thummim,  whatever  might  be 
their  form  or  matter,  were  the  immediate  work  of 
God ;  and  that  Moses  received  them  from  his  hand, 
as  he  did  the  tables  on  which  the  law  was  written, 
and  put  them  into  the  breast-plate. 

Finding  both  Jews  and  Christians,  thus  divided 
in  opinion  respecting  the  Urim  and  Thummim, 
Junius\  and  Diodati,\  like  David  Kimchi  and  Aben 
Ezra,  thought  it  most  safe  to  leave  them  as  things 
unknown,  without  even  conjecturing  what  they 
were.  This,  however,  is  making  a  sacrifice  to  the 
confusion  and  uncertainty  of  human  opinion,  in 
which  I  cannot  conscientiously  concur. 

Leaving,  therefore,  the  mists  of  tradition  and 
conjecture,  both  Jewish  and  Christian,  let  us  resort 
for  information,  to  the  Oracles  of  God.  And  in 
these,  although  we  find  indeed  no  positive  assertion 
of  what  the  Urim  and  Thurnmim  were,  we  find 
grounds  for  a  pretty  satisfactory  conclusion,  that 

*  See  Ainsworth,  on  Exo.  xxviii.  30. 

f  Born  at  Bourges,  in  1545.  He  studied  at  Geneva.  In  1565 
he  became  minister  of  the  Walloon  church,  at  Antwerp.  He 
Was  afterward  chaplain  to  the  prince  of  Orange,  and  finally  pro- 
fessor of  divinity  at  Leyden,  where  he  died  of  the  plague  in  1602. 
He  is  chiefly  known  by  a  latin  version  of  the  bible  with  notes,  in 
which  he  was  assisted  by  Tremellius.  Watkins's  Biog.  Hist,  and 
Chron.  Diet. 

|  A  protestant  divine,  born  at  Lucca  in  1589.  He  became 
professor  of  divinity  at  Geneva,  where  he  died  in  1652.  He 
translated  the  bible  into  Italian,  in  1607,  and  into  French  in  1644. 
Moreri's  Hist.  Diet. 


272  THE  BLESSING    OF    LEVJ.  [SER.  IX, 

they  were  the  twelve  stones  in  the  breast-plate,  on 
which  were  engraven  the  names  of  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel.  This  may  be  concluded, 

1.  From  the  signification  of  the  words.  CD-IIK  Urim 
is  the  plural  of  IIN  Ur  light)  and  CTDH  Thummim 
is  the  plural  of  an  tarn,  perfect  or  perfection.     The 
two  words,  therefore,  literally  signify  lights  and  per- 
fections.    Now,  the  twelve  precious  stones  in  the 
breast-plate   might  be   called  lights  because  they 
were  clear,  lucid  and  transparent;  and  perfections, 
either  because  they  were  perfect  in  their  respective 
kinds,  having  no  blemish  nor  defect  in  them,  or  be- 
cause they  were  full  and  complete  in  number — one 
for  each  of  the  twelve  tribes. 

2.  From  the   evident  fact,  that  the  high-priest, 
when  he  had  on  the  breast-plate,  with  the  Urim  and 
Thummim  in  it,  represented  all  the  tribes,  even  all 
the  children  of  Israel  upon  his  heart,   before   the 
Lord  ;a  but  there  was  nothing  attached  to  him  which 
properly  denoted  this,  save  the  twelve  stones  on 
which  their  names  were  engraven.     See  Exo.  xxviii. 
21.  And, 

3.  Because  Moses  mentions  the  twelve  stones  and 
the  Urim  and  Thummim  in  such  manner  as  seems  to 
identify  them,  that  is,  in  such  manner  as  supposes 
them  to  be  the  same.     Against  this  suggestion,  it  is 
true,  a  plausible  objection  has  been  raised  from  the 
face  of  the  record  made  by  Moses  of  the  original 
instructions  which  he  received  respecting  the  articles 
in  question.     According  to  this  record,  the  Lord 
having  specified  the  materials,  the  form,  and  the 
dimensions  of  the  breast-plate,  said  to  him,  "  Thou 
shalt  set  in  it  settings  [Heb.  fill  in  it  fillings]  of  stones, 

*  Exo.  xxviii.  29. 


8ER.  IX.]  HIS    CRIM    AND    THUMMIM.  273 

even  four  rows  of  stones,'*  eacty  row  consisting  of 
three,  and  the  whole  comprising  twelve.  See  Exo. 
xxviii.  15 — 21.  Yet,  in  the  thirtieth  verse,  the  Lord 
farther  said  unto  him,  "  Thou  shalt  put  in  the  breast- 
plate, the  Urim  and  the  Thummim  ;"  which,  there- 
fore, many  suppose  must  have  been  things  different 
from  the  twelve  stones.  But  the  two  injunctions, 
though  understood  with  reference  to  the  same  arti- 
cles, may  be  harmonized  thus: — By  thej^rsf,  Moses 
was  required  (according  to  ver.  20.)  to  set  the  twelve 
stones  in  gold  in  their  inclosing* ;  that  is,  in  the 
ouches  or  sockets  made  for  them  in  a  plate  of  gold  ; 
and  by  the  second,  he  was  directed  to  put  this  plate 
(thus  set  with  the  four  rows  of  stones)  into  the 
breast-plate.  And,  without  interfering  with  the 
question  whether  the  plate  with  the  four  rows  of 
stones  upon  it,  being  placed  in  the  pectoral,  remain- 
ed there  constantly,  or  was  put  there  whenever  oc- 
casion required  it,  the  design  of  its  being  placed 
there  is  obvious,  namely,  to  constitute  the  pectoral, 
(according  to  ver.  15.)  the  breast-plate  of  judgment, 
which,  without  the  sacred  articles  intended,  it  could 
not  be.  Hence  the  injunction  in  ver.  30,  continues 
thus  :  "  And  they,"  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  (a  new 
name  given  to  the  twelve  stones,  to  denote  their  na- 
tural effulgence  and  oracular  purpose,)  "  shall  be 
upon  Aaron's  heart,  when  he  goeth  in  before  the 
Lord ;  and  Aaron  shall  bear  the  judgment  of  the 
children  of  Israel  upon  his  heart  before  the  Lord 
continually,"  that  is,  whenever  he  approached  the 
divine  Majesty,  to  perform  service,  or  to  ask  counsel 
in  the  name  and  on  the  behalf  of  Israel,  he  must 
have  the  breast-plate  of  Judgment  upon  his  heart. 


274  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [SER.  IX. 

That  Moses  himself  so  understood  the  above  in- 
junctions, delivered  to  him  respecting  the  articles 
under  consideration,  seems  evident  from  two  subse- 
quent  records  which  he  had  occasion  to  furnish  in 
relation  to  them. 

In  Exo.  xxxixth,  where  he  records  his  compliance 
with  those  divine  instructions,  though  he  minutely 
describes  the  breast-plate  and  its  appendages,  even 
to  its  rings,  chains,  and  lace,  he  says  not  a  word  about 
Urim  and  Thummim.  It  would  seem,  therefore, 
that  either  the  twelve  stones  which  he  there  speaks 
of  having  set  in  the  breast-plate,  [see  from  ver.  10  to 
ver.  14,]  were  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  or  that  he 
did  not  put  them  into  the  breast-plate  at  all,  but 
wholly  neglected  the  divine  injunction,  recorded 
Exo.  xxviii.  30.  The  latter  is  utterly  inadmissible  ; 
and  consequently,  the  former  is  highly  probable. 
Besides,  in  Exo.  xxxix.  21,  Moses  particularly  men- 
tions that  all  things  in  relation  to  the  breast-plate, 
were  completed  and  united,  as  the  Lord  had  com- 
manded him. 

And,  in  Levit.  viiith,  where  he  speaks  of  having 
attired  Aaron  with  all  the  pontifical  vestments,  pre- 
paratory to  his  consecration,  he  expressly  asserts, 
(ver.  8.)  that  "  he  put  the  breast-plate  upon  him ; 
also,  that  he  put  in  the  breast-plate  the  Urim  and 
Thummim ;"  but  makes  no  mention  of  the  four  rows 
of  stones  ;  yet,  without  the  latter,  we  know  the 
breast-plate  was  incomplete.  See  Exo.  xxviii.  15— 
21.  The  inference,  therefore,  is  almost  irresistible, 
that  Urim  and  Thummim,  as  noticed  before,  were 
only  another  name  given  to  the  twelve  stones,  to 
signify,  that  their  luster  and  perfection,  of  which  this 


SER.    IX.]  HIS    UR1M    AND    THUMMIM.  275 

name  is  expressive,  were  emblematic  of  their  myste- 
rious character  and  oracular  uses. 

Nor  is  this  opinion  concerning  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  either  novel  or  singular.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  Josephus*  who  lived  while  the  second 
Temple  yet  stood,  and  who,  "  being  by  sect  a  phari- 
see,  by  office  a  priest,  and  by  descent,  of  the  blood- 
royal,"  had  the  best  means  and  opportunities  of  gain- 
ing information  in  regard  to  matters  of  this  kind.  It 
was  avowed  by  Maimonides,  a  famous  Rabbi  of  the 
twelfth  century ,f  and  has  been  adopted  by  several 
Christian  commentators,  distinguished  by  oriental 
learning  and  research.  Among  these,  are  Dr. 
Lightfoot,%  Bp.  Patrick^  and  Dr.  Gill.\\  I  procede 
to  inquire 

Secondly,  What  were  the  uses  of  the  Urim  and 
Thummim.  Here  \ve  have  more  light.  For, 

1.  It  is  evident  they  served  to  secure  to  all  the 
tribes  of  Israel,  a  representation  in  the  person  of  the 
high-priest.  This  is  plain  from  the  direction  which 
God  gave  to  Moses,  saying,  "  Thou  shalt  put  in  the 
breast-plate  of  Judgment  the  Urim  and  the  •  Thum- 
mim ;  and  they  shall  be  upon  Aaron's  heart,  when 
he  goeth  in  before  the  Lord  ;  and  Aaron  shall  bear 
the  Judgment,"  (the  cause)  "of  the  children  of  Israel 

*  Antiq.  1.  3.  c.  8. 

f  The  Jewish  writers  commonly  call  him  Rabbi  Moses  the  son 
of  Maimon ;  or,  by  abbreviation,  Rambam,  the  consonants  of 
which,  R — M— B— M,  being  the  initials  of  Rabbi  Moses  Ben 
Maimon.  Lingua  Sacra,  under  n^D. 

t  Works,  vol.  2,  p.  1067. 

§  On  Exo.  xxviii.  30. 

||  Levi's  Urim  and  Thummim  found  with  Christ. 

37 


276  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEV!.  [SEK.    IX. 

upon  his  heart  before  the  Lord  continually,"  meaning 
whenever  he  officiated  with  these  on  his  breast,b 

As  the  representative,  therefore,  of  all  the  congre- 
gation of  Israel  and  of  them  only,  the  high-priest,  on 
the  great  day  of  atonement,  offered  the  sacrifices  for 
sin,  on  the  brazen  altar.*  Even  in  perform  ing  this  work, 
the  priest  might  be  said  to  go  in  before  the  Lord ;  be- 
cause, in  order  thereto,  he  went  into  the  outward  court, 
where  on  the  day  of  atonement,  as  on  the  day  of  his 
consecration,  he  might  be  said  to  kill  the  sacrifice 
before  the  Lord.  Exo.  xxix.  11.  Nevertheless,  by 
his  going  in  before  the  Lord,  (Exo.  xxviii.  30,)  seems 
chiefly  to  be  meant  his  going  in  before  the  Lord  to 
peform  his  service  in  the  two  apartments  within  the 
tabernacle,  properly  so  called. 

Accordingly,  on  the  day  of  atonement,  and  as  the 
representative  of  all  the  congregation  of  Israel,  he 
entered  into  the  most  holy  place.  And  though  he  is 
said  to  have  entered  there  once  every  year,  the  sense 
is  not  that  he  entered  there  only  "  once  every  year," 
but,  that  the  day  of  atonement  on  which  he  entered, 
occurred  only  once  every  year.  See  Exo.  xxx.  10,  and 
Levit.  xvi.  34.  For  the  history  of  the  matter  plainly 

b  Exo.  xxviii.  30. 

*  Levit.  xvi.  11. 15.  24.  Comp.  Chap.ix.  7,8,  9.  15, 16.  18.  This 
altar  is  called  the  brazen  (Exo.  xxxix.  39.)  because  the  wood  of  it,  ac- 
cording to  Chap,  xxxviii.  1,  2,  was  overlaid  with  brass.  It  is  also 
called  the  altar  of  burnt  offering,  (Exo.  xl.  6,  29,)  because  the  bodies 
of  the  animals  offered  upon  it,  (after  their  blood  was  drawn  and  dis- 
posed of,)  were  burnt  partly  upon  the  altar  itself,  and  partly  without 
the  camp.  Levit.  xvi.  25,  27  Heb.  xiii.  11.  It  stood  in  the  open 
court,  near  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  that  is,  the  hanging  or  cur- 
tain, through  which  was  the  door  of  entrance  into  the  holy  place,  called 
also  the  first  tabernacle,  Exo.  xxvi.  36,  37,  xl.  6,  29.  Heb.  ix.  2. 


SEE.    IX.]  HIS    URIM   AND    THUMMIM.  277 

shows,  and  the  best  commentators,  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian, are  all  agreed,  that  on  the  day  of  atonement, 
annually,  the  high-priest  entered  that  sacred  place 
three  several  times. 

The  inspired  account  of  his  work  on  that  day  runs 
thus.  He  commenced  it  by  bringing  the  bullock  to 
the  altar  of  burnt-offering,  where  he  killed  and  offer- 
ed it  as  a  sin-offering  for  himself  and  his  house.0 
This  done, — 1.  He  entered  into  the  most  holy  place, 
taking  with  him  "  a  censer*  full  of  burning  coals  of 
fire  from  off  the  altarf  before  the  Lord,  and  his  hands 
full''  (either  each  separately  filled,  or  what  we  call  a 
double  handful)  "  of  sweet  incense."  According  to 
the  Mishna,l  he  put  the  incense  into  a  cup,  which  he 
carried  in  his  left  hand,  while  he  carried  the  censer 
full  of  burning  coals  in  his  right  hand,  till  he  came 
within  the  vail,  where  he  put  the  incense  upon  the 
burning  coals,  and  the  smoke  of  it,  like  a  cloud, 
covered  the  mercy-seat,  that  he  might  not  die  by 
looking  upon  the  symbol  of  God's  presence  which  there 
appeared/  Having  returned  for  the  blood  of  the 
bullock,— 2.  He  entered  taking  that  with  him  in  a 
bason,  out  of  which,  with  his  finger,  he  sprinkled 
some  of  it  upon  the  mercy-seat  eastward.0  This 

«  Levit.  xvi.  6.  11. 

*  That  of  gold,  the  use  of  which,  on  the  day  of  atonement,  be- 
longed to  the  holy  of  holies*    Heb.  ix.  4. 

f  By  which  is  meant  the  brazen  altar  of  burnt-offering,  on  which 
the  fire  was  kept  constantly  burning.     Levit.  vi.  9,  12,  13. 

f  C.  5.  Sect.  1. 

dLevit  xvi.  12,  13.     Comp.  ver,  2.  e  Ver.  14. 


278  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  IX. 

sprinkling,  Aben  Ezra  says,  according  to  their  inter- 
preters, was  upwards  and  not  upon  the  mercy-seat, 
but  over  against  it.  Of  the  same  opinion  were  Bp. 
Patrick  and  Dr.  Gill,  supposing,  with  the  Jewish 
interpreters,  that  it  would  have  been  inconsistent  with 
the  sacredness  of  the  mercy-seat,  for  the  blood  to 
have  fallen  upon  it.  To  me,  however,  (this  trivial 
objection  notwithstanding)  it  seems  most  safe  to 
abide  by  the  Hebrew  text,  according  to  the  literal 
version  of  which,  the  blood,  though  indeed  sprinkled 
upward,  as  the  word  dl  imports,  yet  fell  upon  the 
face  of  the  mercy-seat,*  then  covered  with  a  cloud  of 
incense.  Hence  also  the  proper  distinction  between 
this  sprinkling  and  that  which  followed  :  "and  before 
the  mercy-seat,  shall  he  sprinkle  of  the  blood  with 
his  finger  seven  times  ;"  which,  according  to  the  same 
Jewish  authorities,  was  sprinkled  downwards.^  And 
—  3.  Having  come  out  again,  and  killed  the  goat, 
which  by  lot  was  the  sin-offering  for  the  people,  he 
took  the  blood  of  it  within  the  vail,  and  did  with  it 
as  he  had  done  with  that  of  the  bullock/ 

Thus  the  high-priest,  according  to  Levit.  xvi.  16, 
was  required  to  "make  an  atonement  for  the  holy 
place  ;J  because  of  the  uncleanness,  transgressions, 


f  See  Bp.  Patrick,  on  the  place. 
f  Levit.  xvi.  15. 

J  By  which,  as  in  ver.  2,  3,  is  meant  the  most  holy  place  ;  the 
word  kodesh,  holy,  denoting  in  these  instances,  the  same  place 
which  is  elsewhere  called  kodesh  hakodasheem,  the  holy  of  holies. 
Exo.  xxvi.  34.  1  Kings,  vi.  16,  and  vii.  50.  So,  in  the  epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  ta  hagia  (Chap.  ix.  25,  and  xiii.  11.)  and  ton  hagion 
(Chap.  ix.  8,  and  x.  19)  denote  the  same  place,  which,  in  chap.  ix« 


SEE.    IX.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  279 

and  all  the  sins  of  the  children  of  Israel,"  meaning 
those  which  occurred  in  their  civil  or  common  life. 
Hereby  it  was  signified,  that  although  the  Israelites 
themselves  did  not  enter  into  that  most  holy  place, 
yet  that,  in  some  sense,  their  iniquities  did — that  is, 
that  they  came  before  the  Lord  in  heaven,  of  which 
that  place,  in  the  tabernacle  and  temple  was  a  figure ; 
Heb.  ix.  24 ;  and  that  they  could  not  be  pardoned 
without  an  expiatory  sacrifice.  Compare  Rev.  xviii. 
5.  But  they  were  likewise  often  ceremonially  un- 
clean when  they  entered  into  the  tabernacle  for  wor- 

3,  is  called  hagia  hagion,  the  Jioly  of  holies.  This  most  holy  place 
was  separated  from  the  holy  place,  by  a  vail  made  of  blue,  purple, 
and  fine  twined  linen  ;  and  the  holy  place  was  separated  from  the 
court  of  the  people,  by  a  hanging,  or  curtain,  made  of  the  same 
materials ;  the  two,  however,  differing  in  the  following  respects : — 
the  vailhad  on  it  the  figures  of  cherubims,  and  was  of  choscheb,  "of 
cunning  work,"  which,  according  to  Maimonides  (Kele  Hammikda, 
C.  8.)  the  Jewish  interpreters  say  means  "  the  work  of  a  weaver," 
showing  the  colors  on  both  sides  ;  while  the  hanging  was  without 
cherubims  and  of  rokem,  "  of  needle- work,"  which  showed  the 
colors,  upon  the  linen,  only  on  one  side.  See  Exo.  xxvi.  31 — 36. 
Within  the  vail,  in  the  most  holy  place,  stood  the  ark,  having  in  it 
the  two  tables  of  the  law,  and  upon  it  the  mercy-seat,  with  the  two 
cherubims.  Here  also  were  the  golden  pot  that  had  manna  and 
Aaron's  rod  that  budded.  Exo.  xxvi.  33,  34,  1  Kings  viii.  6 — 9, 
and  Heb.  ix.  4,  5.  Without  the  vail,  in  the  holy  place,  stood  the 
table  of  shew-bread,  the  golden  candlestick,  and  the  golden  altar 
of  incense.  Exo.  xxvi.  35,  xxx.  1 — 6,  and  Heb.  ix.  2.  And 
without  the  hanging,  in  the  open  court,  stood  the  brazen  altar  of 
burnt-offering  and  the  brazen  laver.  Exo.  xl.  6,  8.  Here,  in 
view  of  the  people,  the  priests  slew  and  offered  the  sacrifices ; 
Levit.  i.  iii.  iv.  v.  and  vi.  chapters ;  in  the  holy  place  also,  they 
performed  a  daily  service ;  Exo.  xxvii.  21 ;  but  into  the  most  holy 
place,  none  might  enter  but  the  high-priest,  nor  he  save  on  the  day 
of  atonement,  and  in  the  manner  divinely  prescribed.  Levit.  xvi. 
2,  &c. 


280  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [sER.  IX. 

ship,  and  moreover,  were  chargeable  with  many  sins 
while  there,  both  of  omission  and  commission. 
See  Levit.  xv.  31.  And  hence  the  priest  was  farther 
required  to  "do  for  the  tabernacle  of  the  congrega- 
tion," as  he  had  done  for  the  most  holy  place  ;  that  is, 
to  make  an  atonement  for  it  by  the  blood  of  the  sin- 
offering;  which  probably,  as  on  other  occasions,  he 
sprinkled  upon  and  round  about  the  brazen  altar  of 
burnt  offering,  which,  as  noticed  already,  stood  in  the 
open  court,  wherein  the  people  assembled,  and  which 
was  defiled  by  their  uncleanness.  See  Levit.  iv.  18, 
ix.  18,  and  xvii.  6.  This  service,  as  all  must  per- 
ceive, the  priest  could  not  perform,  till,  having  come 
out  of  the  holy  of  holies  and  passed  through  the  holy 
place,  he  entered  into  the  court  of  the  people,  called 
"the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation;'5  yet,  being  here 
enjoined,  and  the  manner  of  it  being  noted  by  the 
injunction  "so  shall  he  do  for  the  tabernacle  of  the 
congregation,"  that  is,  as  he  had  done  for  the  holy  of 
holies,  the  particulars  of  it  are  not  afterwards  speci- 
fied. 

In  preceding  from  the  holy  of  holies  to  the 
court  of  the  people,  in  which  he  performed  the  ser- 
vice last  mentioned,  the  high-priest  had  also  a  ser- 
vice to  perform  in  the  holy  place,  through  which  he 
passed.  Here  stood  the  golden  altar  of  incense,  for 
which  he  was  required  to  make  an  atonement,  by 
putting  some  of  the  blood  of  the  bullock  and  of  the 
goat  upon  its  horns,  and  by  sprinkling  thereof  seven 
times  upon  it  generally ;  whereby  he  cleansed  and 
hallowed  it  "  from  the  uncleanness  of  the  children  of 
Israel."g  Upon  this  altar,  he  likewise  burnt  sweet 

'  Levit.  xvi.  18, 19.  Comp.  Exo.  xxx.  10. 


SER.  IX.]  HIS    URIM   AND   THUMM1M.  281 

incense  daily,  both  morning  and  evening,  when  he 
dressed  and  trimmed  the  lamps.11 

Here,  let  it  be  carefully  noticed,  that  ceremonial 
atonement  involved  ceremonial  reconciliation ;  for  it 
is  evident,  that  whomsoever  and  whatsoever  the  high- 
priest  thus  atoned  for,  he  thereby  reconciled  ;J  and 
which,  with  the  holy  of  holies,  the  tabernacle  of  the 
congregation  and  the  altar,  both  that  of  incense  and 
that  of  burnt- offering,  included  the  priests  and  all 
the  congregation,  that  is,  of  the  people  or  children  of 
Israel ;  the  atonement  being  made  "  for  all  their 
sins."k 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  that  while  the  high- 
priest  performed  this  expiatory  work,  the  whole 
tabernacle  was  to  be  evacuated  of  all  other  persons  : 
"  There  shall,"  said  God,  "  be  no  man,"  and  there- 
fore not  even  a  levite  or  an  ordinary  priest,  "  in  the 
tabernacle,"  in  any  apartment  of  it,  "when  he,"  the 
high-priest,  "  goeth  in  to  make  an  atonement  for  the 
holy  place,"  meaning  as  before  the  holy  of  holies, 
"until  he  come  out,  and  have  made  an  atonement  for 
himself,  and  for  his  household,  and  for  all  the  congre- 
gation of  Israel ;!  all  which  he  did  on  the  day  of 
atonement  and  within  the  tabernacle.™ 

2.  It  is  no  less  manifest,  that  by  means  of  the 
Urim  and  Tlmmmim,  the  high-priest  consulted  the 
Lord,  and  obtained  from  him  infallible  answers  to 
important  inquiries,  which  he  had  occasion  to  make 
respecting  the  national  affairs  of  Israel.  "And  he'' 
(Joshua)  "  shall  stand  before  Eleazarthe  priest,  who 
shall  ask  counsel  for  him,  after  the  judgment  of 

hExo.  xxx.  7,  8.  *  Levit.  xvi.  20.  k  Ver.  33, 34.  •  Ver.  17. 
m  Ver.  14,  15,  16,  34. 


282  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  IX. 

Urim  before  the  LORD  :  at  his  word  (that  of  the 
Lord)  shall  they  go  out,  and  at  his  word  they  shall 
come  in,  both  he,  and  all  the  children  of  Israel  with 
him,  even  all  the  congregation."11  Moreover,  to 
their  asking  counsel  of  God  in  this  way,  the  presence 
of  the  high-priest  was  indispensable  ;  for,  as  none 
but  he  might  have  on  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  so 
answers  thereby,  could  be  obtained  by  none  but  him. 
Nor  did  he,  in  this  manner,  ask  counsel  of  God  for 
private  persons  or  in  relation  to  trivial  things,  but 
only  for  public  persons  and  respecting  very  impor- 
tant matters  ;  as  every  instance  of  such  consultation, 
upon  record,  plainly  shows.  And,  as  it  was  a  distin- 
guished expression  of  God's  favor  to  Joshua,  David, 
and  others,  that  they  were  permitted,  on  emergent 
occasions,  thus  to  ascertain  his  will  concerning 
Israel ;  so  it  was  a  great  mark  of  his  displeasure  at 
Saul,  when  he  refused  to  answer  him,  by  dreams,  or 
by  Urim,  or  by  prophets.  See  1-  Sam.  xxviii.  6.  I 
pass  to  inquire, 

Thirdly,  How  God  was  pleased  to  return  answers 
by  Urim  and  Thummim.  Here,  instead  of  detain- 
ing you  with  an  account  of  the  various  opinions  which 
have  been  offered  in  reply  to  this  inquiry,  I  shall 
mention  only  that,  which  to  me  seems  the  most  pro- 
bable, to  wit,  That  God  gave  the  answers  by  a  dis- 
tinct and  articulate  voice.  This  seems  best  to  agree 
with  the  direction  by  which  Joshua  and  Israel  were 
to  be  governed,  whenever  Eleazar,  in  this  way,  should 
ask  counsel  of  the  Lord  on  their  behalf:  at  his  word 
(the  word  of  the  Lord)  shall  they  go  out,  and  at  his 
word  they  shall  come  in,  both  he  (Joshua)  and  all  the 

"Num.  xxvii.  21. 


SER.  IX.]  HIS   URIM    AND    THTJMMIM. 

children  of  Israel  with  him,  tyc.  Numb,  xxvii.  21. 
And  accordingly,  in  all  instances  of  such  consulta- 
tion, whether  implied  or  expressed,  the  answers  ap- 
pear to  have  been  given  in  this  way;  for  it  is  always 
observed,  that  the  Lord  said,  that  is,  spoke  what  he 
gave  as  his  answer.  See  Judges  i.  1,  2.  xx.  18.  and 
1  Sam.  xxiii.  2,  4,  12. 

Fourthly,  It  remains  requisit,  that  we  inquire  into 
the  meaning  of  what  Moses  here  says  of  the  person 
with  whom  he  prayed,  that  the  Urim  and  Thummim 
might  abide.  And  of  Levi  he  said,  (that  is,  to  God,) 
Let  thy  Thummim  and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy 
One,  ichom  thou  didst  prove  at  Massah,  and  with 
whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meribah. 

This  prayer  was  evidently  made  with  an  allusion 
to  Aaron,  and,  indirectly,  on  behalf  of  the  Aronic 
priesthood.  Every  high-priest  of  that  order,  if  legit- 
imately descended  and  legally  consecrated,  was 
ceremonially  holy ;°  but  Aaron  was  more;  he  was 
not  only  anointed  with  the  oil  of  consecration, 
but  also,  it  would  seem,  with  the  oil  of  grace, 
and  hence  is  emphatically  stiled,  The  saint  of 
the  Lord.  Psal.  cvi.  16.*  He,  too,  was  divinely 
proved  and  striven  with  :  whom  thou  (the  Lord) 
didst  prove  at  Massahfy  and  with  whom  thou 

°Levit.  xxi.  15. 

*  See  the  vindication  of  Aaron's  character,  Ser.  1,  pp.  30 — 35. 

t  nDDi  bamassah,  here  rendered  at  Massah,  from  3  heth  in  or 
with  and  fiDD  Massah  temptation,  literally  means  in  or  with  a 
temptation  ;  and  so,  as  noticed  by  Bp.  Patrick,  it  was  understood 
by  the  ancient  interpreters,  and  not  as  the  name  of  a  place,  as  our 
version  represents  it  to  be.  Their  interpretation  of  this  passage  is 
also  favored  by  Psal.  xcv.8.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  Massah, 
temptation,  as  well  as  Meribah,  strife,  is  elsewhere  used  as  the 
name  of  a  place,  and  to  commemorate,  by  its  signification^  what 

38 


284  Tin-.:   uLLs.si.NG  OF  LEVI.  [SER.  ix 

didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meribah.  The  Lord 
proved,  that  is,  'tried  him  at  Massah,  (where  the 
Israelites  were  apprehensive  of  death  from  the  want 
of  water  to  drink,)  and  found  him  faithful  and  stead- 
fast ;  he  stood  in  the  trial  ;*  for,  while  the  people  (his 
own  tribe  not  excepted)  chid  with  Moses  and  doubt- 
ed whether  the  Lord  was  among  them,  Aaron,  be- 
lieving that  God  according  to  his  promise  would 
supply  them,  remained  silent,  and,  in  that  instance, 
received  no  reproof;  his  name  not  being  even  mention- 
ed in  the  record  of  the  matter.  Bee  Exo.  xvii.  1 — 7, 
And  at  Meribah,^  where  also  "  there  was  no  water 
for  the  congregation,"  the  Lord  strove  with  him;  and 

there  occurred.  See  Exo.  xvii.  7.  and  Num.  xx.  13.  It  is  also 
certain,  from  the  passages  just  referred  to,  that  Moses  was-  accus- 
tomed to  use  the  words  Massah  and  Meribah,  as  the  names  of  two 
places,  very  memorable  both  to  himself  and  to  Israel,  and  which 
renders  it  highly  probable  that  he  so  used  them  in  this  prayer.  So 
we  know  Meribah  is  used  in  Psal.  Ixxxi.  7.  "Wherefore,  with  our 
translators,  I  think  it  best  to  retain  them  both  as  such,  in  our  text. 
HDJ  nissah,  the  verb  here  rendered  prove,  means  to  prove  or  try,by 
experimerit,  what  a  person  is,  or  what,  under  trying  circumstances 
he  will  do. — Taylor.  See  Deut.  xiii.  3.  and  1  Kings  x.  1.  It  is 
often  rendered  tempt  or  try.  Thus,  for  instance,  "  God  did  tempt 
Abraham  ;"  Gen.  xxii.  1  ;  and  "  God  left  him"  (Hezekiah)  "  to 
try.lriw."  2  Chron.  xxxii.  31. 

*  So  the  Targum  of  Jerusalem. 

t  Not  the  Meribah  mentioned  with  Massah,  Exo.  xvii.  7,  which, 
as  appears  from  ver.  1  of  the  same  chap,  was  in  Rcphidim,  in  the 
wilderness  of  Sin  ;  but  a  place  which,  from  a  like  occasion  (a  strife 
about  water)  received  the  same  name  ;  Num.  xx.  13;  and  which, 
as  it  was  in  Kadcsh,  in  the  wilderness  of  Zin,  is,  by  way  of  dis- 
tinction from  the  Meribah  in  Rephidim,  called  Meribah- Kadesh. 
Deut.  xxxii.  51.  And,  that  this  Mcribali  lay  remote  from  the 
other  and  had  its  name  from  a  strife  which  occurred  near  forty 
years  after  that  which  gave  name  to  the  other,  may  be  seen  by 
comparing  Num.  xx.  22 — 29,  with  Chap,  xxxiii.  11,  14.  30,  38, 


SER.  IX.]  HIS    UK1M    AND    THUMMIM.  285 

that,  not  only  by  suffering  the  people  to  strive  with 
him,  as  well  as  with  Moses,  but  also  by  rebuking  both 
him  and  Moses,  for  not  having  duly  sanctified,  that  is, 
acknowledged  and  honored  him,  before  the  people  : 
nay,  so  great  was  his  displeasure  at  their  behaviour 
on  that  occasion,  that  he  said  to  them,  "Because  ye 
believed  me  not,  to  sanctify  me  in  the  eyes  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  ye  shall  not  bring  this  congrega- 
tion into  the  land  which  I  have  given  them."  Num> 
xx.  12* 

,  With  this  awful  sentence  in  recollection,  and 
knowing  that  his  brother  was  already  dead,p  and  that 
he  himself  must  shortly  die,q  Moses  seems  to  have 
apprehended,  that  the  entail  of  the  priesthood  was 
likely  to  be  cut  off  from  the  house  of  Aaron,  and  even 
from  the  tribe  of  Levi ;  yet,  hoping  that  God  would 
have  a  merciful  respect  to  Aaron's  fidelity  under  his 
former  trial,  and  to  that  of  the  Levites  in  com- 
mon, on  another  occasion,1"  ventured  to  offer  this  hum- 
ble, though  prophetic  supplication :  And  of  Levi  he 
said,  (that  is,  to  God  in  prayer,)  Let  thy  Thummim 
and  thy  Urim,  which  none  but  the  high-priest  might 
wear,  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  and  which,  so  far  as  it 
respected  Aaron  who  was  of  that  tribe,  was  a  petition 

*  Wherein  Moses  and  Aaron  thus  highly  provoked  the  Lord,  has 
been  a  question  among  interpreters.  Was  it  not  by  saying  to  the 
congregation,  as  in  ver.  10,  "  Must  we  fetch  you  water  out  of  this 
rock  ?"  Did  they  not  thereby  insinuate  that  the  favor  depended 
on  themselves,  and  so  tempt  the  people  to  trust  in  them  for  it, 
rather  than  in  God  1  And  if  so,  they  could  scarcely  have  offered  a 
greater  insult  to  the  divine  Majesty.  Let  gospel-ministers  hence 
learn  to  pray,  and  preach,  and  converse,  under  the  recollection  of 
1  Cor.  iii.  5 — 7,  and  2  Cor.  iv.  7. 

pNum.  xx.  28.     qDeut,  xxxii.  49—51,     'Exo.  xxxii.  26—28. 


286  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  IX. 

that  the  high-priesthood,  and  so  the  right  of  wearing 
the  Thummim  and  Urim,  might  remain  with  him,  by 
remaining  with  his  descendants. 

The  mystical  signification  of  the  words  thus  literal- 
ly explained,  will  be  considered  in  the  next  sermon. 


SERMON  X. 


THE  BLESSING  OF  L.ETT.    HIS  URIM  AN1> 
THUMMIM. 


DEUT.  xxxni.  8 — 11. — And  of  Levi  he  said,  Let  thy  Thummim 
and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  whom  thou  didst  prove  at 
MassaJi,  and  with  whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meri~ 
bah,  <$»c. 


HAVING  in  the  preceding  discourse  given  what  I 
understand  to  be  the  literal  import  of  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  and  of  the  prophetic  prayer  respecting 
them,  I  precede,  in  this  discourse,  to  consider  them  in 
their  mystical  signification. 

And  here  we  shall  find  CHRIST  to  be  ALL  and  in 
ALL. 

To  him  belong  the  characteristics  here  given  of  the 
high-priest. 

With  him  are  found  the  excellencies  imported  by 
the  words  Urim  and  Thummim— and 

In  him,  believers  realize  all  that  was  done  by  the 
high-priest,  while  he  had  these  mysterious  articles  on 
his  breast. 

1.  To  CHRIST  belong  the  characteristics  here 
given  of  the  high-priest.  For, 

First9  He  is  eminently  the  Holy  Owe,  both  of  God 
and  of  God's  Israel.  Of  him,  therefore,  Moses  ad- 


288  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [SKtl.    X* 

dressing  God,  might  well  say,  Thy  Holy  One.  Nor 
should  it  be  concealed,  that,  by  anticipation,  the 
Spirit  of  prophecy  thus  early  called  him  a  man, 
thereby  intimating  his  future  incarnation  ;  for  the 
original,  literally  rendered,  is  the  man  thy  Holy 
One*  And,  that  he,  by  assuming  human  nature  after 
it  was  fallen  and  depraved,  should  become  a  man  and 
still  be  essentially  holy,  must  be  miraculous,  and 
therefore  might  well  be  a  subject  of  prophecy .f  Yet, 
in  him,  this  was  perfectly  verified  :  for  his  human  na- 
ture, conceived  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is 
that  holy  thing  mentioned,  Luke  i.  35  ;  nor  was 
there  any  moral  blemish  in  his  human  life ;  he  did 
no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth.  1 
Pet.  ii.  22.  And  being  thus  holy  in  nature  and  life, 
he  is  a  most  suitable  person  to  wear  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  and  to  be  the  High-priest  of  spiritual 
Israel ;  for  such  an  High-priest  became  us,  who  is  holy, 
harmless,  $?c.  Heb.  vii.  26.  Nevertheless,  that  he 
existed  prior  to  his  incarnation,  and  that  he  is  natu- 
rally possessed  of  supreme  divinity,  will  appear, 
while  we  notice, 

Secondly,  That  he  was,  and  under  what  name  he 
was  proved,  that  is,  tried  or  tempted,  at  Massah  and 
striven  with  at  Meribah.  For,  God  permitting  it,  the 
Israelites  not  only  tempted  and  strove  with  Moses 
and  Aaron,  but  they  also  tempted  and  strove  with  the 
LORD  himself.  "  Wherefore,"  said  Moses  to  them, 
"  do  ye  tempt  the  Lord  ?"8  And,  to  perpetuate  the 
memory  thereof,  "he  called  the  name  of  the  place 
Massah,  temptation,  and  Meribah,  strife,  because  of 
the  chiding  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  because 

*  ITDH  KTS.     t  A  new  thing  &c.  Jer.  xxxi.  22*    'Exo.  xvii.  2, 


SER.  X.]  HIS    UR1M    AND    TtlL'MftHM.  289 

they  tempted  the  LORD,  saying,  Is  the  LORD  among 
us  or  not?"1  Such  was  their  conduct,  when  in  dis- 
tress for  water,  in  Repkidim;  nor  did  they  behave 
any  better  when,  about  forty  years  after,  they  were 
in  distress  from  the  same  cause  at  Kadesh ;  hence, 
of  the  water  here  procured  for  them,  Moses  said, 
"  This  is  the  water  of  Meribah,"  strife,  "  because  the 
children  of  Israel,"  as  in  the  former  instance,  "strove 
with  the  LORD."  Num.  xx.  13.* 

Now,  that  the  Lord  whom  the  Israelites  tempted, 
and  with  whom  they  strove,  was  none  other  than  the 
LORD  JESUS  CHRIST,  is  as  certain  as  it  is  that  the 
apostle  Paul  wrote  by  divine  inspiration  ;  for  this 
apostle  having  admonished  his  Jewish  brethren  not 
to  imitate  their  fathers  in  certain  other  acts  of  wick- 
edness, added,  "  Neither  let  us  tempt  Christ,  as  some 
of  them  also  tempted"  [him]  "  and  were  destroyed 
of  serpents.""  And,  as  a  farther  and  more  conclu- 
sive proof  of  the  supreme  divinity  of  Christ,  it  should 
be  recollected,  that,  in  every  instance  referred  to,  of 
his  being  tempted  and  striven  with,  his  name,  though 
rendered  LORD,  is  in  the  original  JEHOVAH  ;  which 
name,  as  it  is  expressive  of  the  divine  essense, 
is  utterly  inapplicable  to  any  creature.™  CHRIST, 
therefore,  was  tempted  and  striven  with,  not  merely 
as  typified  in  Aaron,  but  as  being  personally  present. 
And  though  the  prayer  under  consideration,  was  SQ 

'Exo.  xvii.  7. 

*  How  affecting  to  see  that  the  Israelites  were  as  depraved  at  the 
end  of  their  journey  in  the  wilderness,  as  when  they  commenced 
it !  Thus,  alas !  depraved  nature,  in  a  believer,  is  no  belter  at  the 
end  of  his  pilgrimage  than  it  was  when  he  first  cried,  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner  ?  See  Rom.  vii.  18. 

ul  Cor.  x.  9.  Comp,  Num.  xx.  2.  4.  13.  xxi.  5,6.  "Psal. 
Ixxxiii.  18. 


290  THE  BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  X. 

far  answered  in  behalf  of  Aaron,  that  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  during  the  literal  use  of  them,  (which 
terminated  at  the  captivity,) 'remained  with  him,  thai 
is,  with  a  succession  of  high-priests  of  his  order  and 
lineage  ;  yet  when  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  Moses,  said  to 
God  the  Father,  Let  thy  Thummim  and  thy  Urim 
be  with  thy  Holy  One,  I  doubt  not  that  he  spoke  di- 
rectly of  CHRIST.  Hence, 

II.  With  HIM  are  found  the  excellencies  imported 
by  the  words  Urim  and  Thummim.  These  words, 
as  already  shown,  (page  272,)  signify  lights  and  per- 
fections ;  and  which,  of  all  kinds,  and  in  the  richest 
abundance  are  in  Christ :  his  understanding  is  infi- 
nite* and  in  him,  as  Mediator,  it  pleased  the  Father 
that  all  fulness  should  dwell? 

First,  The  Urim,  lights,  are  found  with  Christ;  all 
kinds  of  light  being  in  him  and  from  him.  Accord- 
ingly, by  a  most  happy  allusion  to  the  luminary  of 
nature,  he  is  called  "  the  sun  of  righteousness."2  For, 
as  all  material  light  is  in  the  natural  sun,  so  all  in- 
tellectual light  is  in  Christ ;  and  as  all  the  light 
reflected  by  other  bodies,  either  celestial  or  terres- 
trial, is  from  the  sun,  so  all  the  true  knowledge,  natu- 
ral or  supernatural,  possessed  or  exhibited  by  crea- 
tures, whether  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  is  from  Christ ; 
"in  whom  (till  communicated)  are  hid  all  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.3"  From  Christ, 
therefore,  comes, 

1.  The  light  of  reason.  In  this  respect,  He  is  the 
true,  light,  which  lighteth  every  man  (generally 
speaking)  that  cometh  into  the  world}'  For  the  light 
of  reason  (a  few  idiots  notwithstanding)  is  common 

*  Psal.  cxlvii.  5.  ^Col.  i.  19.  z  Mai.  iv.  2.  a  Col.  ii.  3.   b  John.  i.  9. 


SER.  X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  291 

to  the  human  family  of  all  nations  and  of  all  gene- 
rations. And  this,  though  it  never  was  sufficient  to 
lead  mankind  to  eternal  life,  and  though  it;  was 
greatly  diminished  by  the  fall,  is  nevertheless  suffi- 
cient to  leave  them  "without  excuse,"  in  the  event 
of  their  falling  into  idolatry  or  the  denial  of  the 
Being  and  perfections  of  God ;  for  "the  invisible 
things  of  him,  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are 
clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that 
are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead."8 
By  this  light,  too,  mankind  may  discover  the  differ- 
ence between  moral  right  and  wrong,  and  conse- 
quently, all  their  mutual  obligations  in  every  natural 
and  civil  relation.  See  Rom.  ii.  14,  15. 

2.  The  light  of  revelation.  "  Prophecy  came  not 
in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man :  but  holy  men  of  God 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."d  But 
the  Holy  Ghost  by  which  those  men  prophesied, 
was  the  Spirit  of  Christ  speaking  in  them.6  And 
by  the  same  Spirit  came  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament;  for  "the  testimony  of  Jesus,"  in  his 
apostles,  as  well  as  in  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, "  is  the  Spirit  of  prophecy  ."f  His  testimony  is 
the  Spirit  of  Prophecy  also,  as  it  contains  an  infal- 
lible interpretation  and  application  of  the  types  and 
predictions  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  is  therefore, 
the  very  spirit)  soul  and  substance,  of  the  Mosaic 
and  prophetic  writings.g  Thus  it  is  evident,  that 
"  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,'5  and 
that  it  was  given  by  him,  through  the  medium  of  his 
Son.h  And  though  under  the  former  dispensation, 

cRom.  i.  20.  d2  Pet.  i.  21.  e  1  Pet.  i.  11.  f  Rev.  xix.  10. 
*  Luke  xxiv.  27.  44.  Acts  iii.  22.  xxvi.  22,  23.  Gal.  iv.  21 — 31. 
Col.  ii.  16.  17.  Heb  x.  1.  &c.  h2  Tim.  iii.  J6.  Heb.  i.  2. 

39 


292  THE    BLESSING    OP    LEVI.  [SER.  X. 

the  oracles  of  God  were  granted  only  to  the  Jews, 
it  is  not  so  now ;  for  Christ,  having  "  broken  down 
the  middle  wall  of  partition"  between  that  nation 
and  others,  hath  thereby  opened  the  way  for  those 
oracles  to  come  to  us  Gentiles ;  and,  that  we  might 
the  better  understand  them,  he  hath  superadded  the 
writings  and  ministry  of  the  New  Testament.  Well, 
therefore,  might  he  say,  as  he  did,  /  am  the  light  of 
the  world?  for  as  the  rays  of  light  preceding  from 
the  one  natural  sun,  to  which  he  alluded,  extend  to 
all  the  world,  so  the  rays  of  external  revelation  and 
of  the  gospel-ministry,  preceding  from  himself, 
the  one  "Sun  of  righteousness,"  are  destined  to 
beam  upon  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Thus, 
according  to  promise,  Christ  will  become  the  light  of 
the  Gentiles,  as  well  as  the  glory  of  Israel* 

Nevertheless,  as  the  rays  of  light  preceding  from 
the  sun,  do  not  give  natural  life  and  eyesight  to  those 
who  are  literally  dead  and  blind,  so  neither  does  the 
external  light  of  revelation  and  of  gospel-preaching, 
granted  to  the  world,  give  spiritual  life  and  under- 
standing to  carnal  sinners,  who  are  all  morally  dead 
and  blind.  Hence,  "the  natural  man,"  even  with 
the  Bible  in  his  hand  and  the  gospel  sounding  in  his 
ears,  "receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God: 
for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him;  neither  can  he 
know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned.''1 
In  Christ,  however,  provision  is  also  made  to  give 
this  requisit  discernment.  For 

3.  In  and  from  him  is  the  light  of  grace.  Thisis  the 
light  of  life,  a  light  springing  from  life,  and,  like  that, 
emanating  from  Christ :  In  him  was  life  and  the 

*  John  viii.  12.       k  Is.  xlii.  6.  Luke  ii.  32.       J 1  Cor.  ii.   14. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    UR1M    AND    THUMMIM.  293 

life  was  the  light  of  men.m  It  is  by  the  Spirit  of 
life  and  light,  preceding  from  Christ,  that  the  souls 
of  sinners  are  quickened,  and  the  eyes  of  their 
understanding  enlightened."  Thus,  whereas  the 
first  Adam,  the  natural  head  of  all  his  posterity, 
was  only  made  a  living  soul,  that  is,  a  living  man, 
whose  life  terminated  in  himself,  the  last  Adam, 
who  is  Christ,  the  Lord  from  heaven,  was,  as  Medi- 
ator, made  a  quickening  Spirit ;  that  is,  he  was 
constituted  the  mystical  Head  of  all  the  elect,  with 
life  in  himself  to  communicate  to  them ;°  and  as 
this  life,  in  all  to  whom  it  is  communicated,  is  pro- 
ductive of  mental  illumination,  so  Christ  from  whom 
it  precedes,  is  also  said  to  open  the  blind  eyes?  Now 
follows  the  special  use  of  external  revelation  and  of 
ministerial  instruction.  For,  as  persons  wrho  had 
been  literally  blind,  on  having  their  eyes  opened, 
are  enabled,  by  the  light  of  the  sun,  to  behold  nat- 
ural objects,  which  before  they  could  not;  so  regen- 
erate sinners,  having  the  eyes  of  their  understanding 
opened,  are  enabled,  in  reading  the  Bible  and  hear- 
ing the  gospel,  tp  see  and  understand  spiritual 
things,  which,  in  their  carnal  state,  they  could  not 
know  nor  discern,  and  which,  therefore,  they  did  not 
receive  or  realize  as  true  ;  at  least,  not  in  relation  to 
themselves.  The  Holy  Scriptures  now  appear  to 
them  in  their  divine  authority  and  majesty  ;  and  the 
truths  of  them,  attended  by  the  Spirit's  influence, 
reach  and  search  their  hearts,  and  bring  to  their  view 
the  abominations  that  are  there.  The  entrance  of 
thy  words,  said  David  to  the  Lord,  giveth  light,  the 
light  of  information  and  instruction ;  it  giveth  under- 

m  John  i.  4.     °Eph.  i.  17,  18.    ii.  1.  4,  5.      °  1  Cor.  xv.  45.  47. 
John  v  21.  25,  26.  Col  ii.  19.     Pis.  xlii.  7. 


294  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [SER.    X. 

standing  to  the  simple.*  For,  saith  another  inspir- 
ed writer,  the  icord  of  God  is  quick  and  powerful, 
and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sivord,  piercing 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit  and 
of  the  joints  and  marrow ,  and  is  a  discerner  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.*  But  to  be  more 
particular. 

By  the  light  of  revealed  truth,  thus  shining  into 
their  understanding,  the  regenerate  behold  them- 
selves in  the  glass  of  the  divine  law,  and  realize 
that  they  are  fallen,  polluted  and  guilty  creatures, 
and,  as  such,  justly  condemned  before  God:  for  by 
the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin.3  And  though,  at 
first,  they  may  hope  to  gain  divine  acceptance 
by  a  reformation  of  life  and  a  round  of  perform- 
ances; yet  eventually,  by  their  very  exertions  for 
this  purpose,  they  learn  the  fallacy  of  their  hope; 
for  they  find  that  they  are  riot  able  even  to  keep  the 
law  perfectly  for  the  time  being,  and  much  less 
to  satisfy  its  demands  for  the  time  past.  Besides, 
Who  can  say  I  have  made  my  heart  clean,  I  am  pure 
from  my  sin  f  Prov.  xx.  9.  To  a  sinner  thus  la- 
boring, how  terrible  are  these  appropriate  words : 
Though  thou  wash  thee  with  niter,  and  take  thee 
much  soap,  that  is,  though  thou  employ  all  the  means 
which,  to  thee,  seem  most  likely  to  accomplish  thy 
cleansing,  yet  is  thine  iniquity,  both  of  nature  and 
life,  marked  before  me,  saith  the  Lord  God.  Jer.  ii. 
22.  By  their  own  experience,  therefore,  as  well  as 
by  Scripture-testimony,  the  regenerate  are  made  so 
to  realize  the  holiness  and  justice  of  God,  as  to  be- 
come convinced  that  "by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there 
shall  no  flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight  ;"8  and  hence, 
*  Psal.  cxix.  130.  r  Heb.  iv.  12.  »  Rom.  iii.  20. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    URIM    AM)    THUMMIM.  295 

through  the  law  become  dead  to  the  law,  to  all 
hopes  of  obtaining  acceptance  with  God  by  their 
obedience  to  it."  Nevertheless,  they  are  not  left  to 
perish  in  their  sins.  For,  all  who  receive  quickening 
arid  enlightening  grace  from  Christ,  have  also,  in 
him,  justifying  righteousness.  See  Rom.  v.  17 — 
21.  And  therefore, 

By  the  same  light,  the  light  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
understood  by  the  internal  light  of  grace,  communi- 
cated to  them  in  regeneration,  they  are  led  to  be- 
hold CHRIST  in  the  glass  of  the  gospel.  Herein 
they  behold  him,  as  the  brightness  of  his  Father's 
glory  and  the  express  image  of  his  person™ — as  the 
one  Mediator  between  God  and  menx—as  Jesus  Christ 
who  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinner sy — as  having, 
in  order  thereto,  been  made  under  the  law,  that, 
through  his  obedience  and  sacrifice  he  might  redeem 
them  that  were  under  the  law,  and  so  become  the 
end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that 
believeth.z  Herein,  consequently,  they  farther  dis- 
cover, that  Christ  having  magnified  the  law  and 
made  it  honorable,  and  put  away  sin  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  himself,  is  able  also  to  save  them  to  the  utter- 
most that  come  unto  God  by  him  ;a  likewise,  that  he 
is  as  willing  as  he  is  able ;  for,  addressing  such,  he 
says,  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest?  and,  to  silence 
all  their  fears,  he  proclaims  Him  that  cometh  to  me, 
however  laden  with  guilt  and  deserving  of  wrath, 
I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out*  Thus  encouraged,  they 
are  enabled  to  come  to  him,  that  is,  to  believe  on 

u  Gal.  ii.  19.  w  Heb.  i.  3.  *  1  Tim.  ii.  5.  y  Ibid.  i.  15.  z  Gal. 
iv.  5.  Rom.  x.  4.  als.  xlii.  21.  Heb.  vii.  25.  b  Matt.  xi.  28. 
'John.  vi.  37. 


296  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [flER.  X. 

him,  by  that  faith  which  is  the  gift  of  God,  and 
thereby  receive,  through  him,  the  light  of  comfort ; 
for,  "  by  faith  we  have  peace  with  God,  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Rom.  v.  i. 

And,  as  all  the  light  which  the  regenerate  receive  at 
first  conversion,  comes  from  Christ,  so  likewise  does 
all  that,  which  they  afterward  receive,  in  the  course 
of  their  pilgrimage.  Light,  both  of  instruction  and 
comfort,  is  sown  for  the  righteous  in  the  rich  fields 
of  promise  and  prophecy  ;d  but  till  Christ,  by  his 
Spirit,  opens  their  understandings,  as  he  did  those 
of  his  disciples,  to  understand  the  Scriptures,  they 
cannot  receive  and  enjoy  it.e  Many  consoling  truths, 
too,  are  wrapped  in  parables  and  dark  sayings  ;  but 
he  gives  us  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom? 
And  though  his  renewed  people,  as  exemplified  in 
the  church  at  Ephesus,  are  liable  not  only  to  get  into 
darkness,  but  even  to  fall  asleep  there,  he  is,  never- 
theless, mindful  of  them  still:  "Wherefore,"  by  the  in- 
spired record  of  what  he  said  to  that  church,  he  is 
constantly  saying  to  every  church  and  to  every  be- 
liever, in  the  like  deplorable  condition,  "Awake 
thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,5'  from 
conformity  to  the  dead  world,  "  and  Christ  shall  give 
thee  light."  Eph.  ii.  14.*  Moreover, 

d  Psal.  xcvii.  11.     e  Luke  xxiv.  45.     f  Mark  iv.  11. 

*  That  the  Ephesians  were  not  here  addressed  as  being  in  the 
darkness  of  a  carnal  state  is  evident,  for  they  were  before  called 
out  of  that  state  and  made  light  in  the  Lord,  ver.  8  ;  nor,  as  being 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  for  they  had  been  quickened,  Chap.  ii. 
1,  4,  5.  The  common  application,  therefore,  of  these  words  to 
the  carnal  world  is  a  perversion  of  them  ;  but,  as  addressed  to  be- 
lievers, in  a  slumbering,  slothful  conformity  to  a  dead  world,  they 
are  very  pertinent ;  such  conformity  being,  in  them,  as  inconsistent 


SEB.  X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  297 

4.  The  light  of  glory  is  with  and  from  Christ. 
Heaven  is  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light  ;g  but 
this  inheritance  comes  to  them  through  Christ: 
u  The  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord."h  And  as  we  receive  it  through  Christ 
so  we  shall  enjoy  it  with  Christ:  "When  Christ 
who  is  our  life  shall  appear,  then,"  said  Paul  to 
believers,  "  shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  in  glory.1 
How  transporting  the  prospect !  When  arrived  at 
home,  dear  brethren  and  sisters,  all  our  darkness  of 
ignorance  and  reproach,  of  sadness  and  unbelief, 
will  instantly  vanish,  "as  if  it  had  never  been,"  and 
our  souls,  illuminated  with  beams  of  glory  emana- 
ting from  Christ,  will  be  filled  with  pleasing  wonder 
and  ineffable  delight.  There,  believer,  thou  shalt 
never,  as  here,  need  either  the  luminaries  of  nature 
or  the  privileges  of  the  gospel,  sometimes  signified 
by  them :  the  sun  shall  be  no  more  thy  light  by  day, 
neither  for  brightness  shall  the  moon  give  light  unto 
thee.  Nor  shall  thy  felicity,  thus  consumated,  ever 
cease  or  ever  wane  :  but  the  LORD  shall  be  unto  thee 
an  everlasting  Light,  and  thy  God  thy  Glory. 
Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down,  neither  shall  thy 
moon  withdraw  itself;  for  the  LORD  shall  be  thine 
everlasting  Light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourning 
shall  be  ended*  But  to  procede.  As  the  URIM,  lights, 
so 

Secondly,  the  THUMMIM,  perfections,  are  found 
in  CHRIST.   In  him  are, 

1.  All  the  perfections  of  the  divine  nature.     For 

with  propriety  and  duty,  as  it  would  be  for  living  persons  to  lie 
down  and  sleep  among  dead  corpses.     Comp.  Cant.  v.  2.    Rom. 
xiii.  11.  and  1  Thess.  v.  6.     Be  not  conformed  to  this  world  &c. 
Rom.  xii.  2. 
g  Col.  i.  12.        h  Rom.  vi.  23.      *  Col.  iii.  4.       k  Is.  Ix.  19,  20. 


298  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [sER.  X. 

in  him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bod- 
ily" that  is,  personally  or  substantially*  Those 
perfections  by  which  the  Godhead,  or  essential 
Deity  is  chiefly  revealed,  are  eternity,  omnipotence, 
omniscience,  omnipresence,  and  immutability;  all 
which  are  found  in  Christ.  He  is — 1.  Eternal  He 

'*  Zap*  body,  denotes  literally  that  part  of  man  which  consists  of 
flesh  and  bones ;  Matt.  x.  28 ;  yet,  by  a  grecism,  it  also  denotes 
the  whole  man,  and  so  a  person  ;  Rom.  yi.  12.  and  xii.  I ;  as,  by 
a  hebraism,  *y^jj  soul  (answering  to  tpsa)  does  in  Chap.  xiii.  1. 
So  Josephus  (Ant.  Lib.  14.  Cap.  12,  Sect.  5.)  uses  ru^ala  for 
captives  or  slaves.  Comp.  Rev.  xviii.  13.  In  the  same  sense,  too, 
we  use  the  English  word  body,  when  we  say  some  body,  any  body, 
every  body,  no  body,  by  which  we  mean  some  person,  any  person, 
every  person,  no  person.  S<iu*«7<*s$,  the  Adj.  from  rupee,  is  the 
word  properly  rendered  bodily,  as  denoting  what  appertains  or  re- 
lates to  the  body,  or  is  done  in  or  by  it.  See  1  Tim.  iv.  8.  But 
the  word  in  question,  is  <ruu.ttlty.ws,  the  Adv.  formed  from  the  Adj. 
and  which,  according  to  Parkhurst,  may  be  rendered  'in  the  body  ; 
the  apostle  thereby  signifying,  (as  that  Lexicographer  suposed,) 
that  the  Godhead,  in  the  person  of  Christ,  dwells  in  his  body,  of 
which  the  tabernacle  and  temple,  in  which  the  Schecheenah  resi- 
ded, were  evidently  typical;  See  Heb.  viii.  2.  and  John  ii.  19; 
meaning,  nevertheless,  not  that  the  Godhead  dwells  in  Christ, 
merely  by  inspiration,  as  it  dwelt  in  the  prophets  and  apostles; 
nor  by  endoivment  for  official  purposes,  as  supposed  by  Socinians  ; 
nor  only  effectively,  as  in  the  saints;  2  Cor.  vi.  16;  but  essentially 
and  hypostatically  and  by  an  inexplicable  union  to  his  humanity, 
even  as  the  soul  dwells  in  the  body.  "  Grent,"  therefore  indeed,  "  is 
the  mystery  of  godliness ;  God  was  manifested  (e(p»ve^a6t))  in  the 
flesh."  1  Tim.  iii.  16.  Comp.  1  John  iii.  5.  But,  while  1  admit  this 
interpretation  of  the  passage  to  be  agreeable  to  the  analogy  of 
faith,  and  that  which  is  received  by  many  learned  men,  I  am,  not- 
withstanding, strongly  inclined  to  think,  with  Leigh,  (Crit.  Sacra, 
under  c^^*?**^,)  that  the  apostle,  in  this  text,  does  not  speak  of 
the  human  nature  of  Christ  at  all ;  but  that,  as  he  used  C-^.M.*  to 
denote  a  person  (see  above)  so  here  he  used  raftalixaxi  as  meaning 
personally4  or  substantially.  The  word  in  question  being  so 
understood,  the  pussage,  freed  from  many  difficulties,  reads  thus : 
In  him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  personally  or  sub- 
stantially. Col.  ii.  9, 


SER.    X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  299 

is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  first  and  the  last,  the 
beginning  and  the  end ;  which  is,  and  which  was,  and 
which  is  to  come.* — 2.  Omnipotence:  "All  things 
were  created  by  him;  in  a  word,  He  is  the  Almighty* 
3.  Omniscient:  He  needed  not  that  any  should  testify 
of  man  for  he  knew  what  was  in  man.*  Therefore 
Peter  appealed  to  him  as  the  searcher  of  hearts,  say- 
ing, Lord  thou  knowest  all  things;  thou  knowest 
that  I  love  thee.k — 4.  Omnipresent.  This  he  as- 
serted in  a  way  specially  calculated  to  encourage 
those  who  believe  in  him  to  assemble  in  his  name, 
for  worship  :  Where  two  or  three,  said  he,  are  ga- 
thered together  in  my  name,  and  which  might  be  in 
thousands  of  places  at  the  same  time,  there  am  I  in 
the  midst.1  And — 5.  Immutability:  He  is  Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for 
ever™  Nor  can  there  be  any  perfection,  essential  or 
moral,  in  the  Godhead,  which  is  not  in  Christ ;  for 
he  is  the  true  God  and  eternal  life™ 

2.  A  perfection  of  all  spiritual  blessings  for  the 
chosen  of  God  :  Blessed  be  the  God  and  father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  blessed  us  with  all 
spiritual  blessings  in  heavenly  places  (or  things)  in 
Christ,  according  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in  him  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  we  should  be  holy 
and  without  blame  before  him  in  love.0  Among 
these  blessings  are  adoption,  redemption,  pardon, 
justification,  and  a  title  to  eternal  life ;  all  which,  in 
Christ,  are  perfect  and  irreversible. — 1.  All  whom 
God  chose  in  Christ,  he  also  adopted  as  his  children 

*  Rev.  i.  8.  h  John  i.  3.  Col.  1.  16.  Psal.  xci.  1.  *  John 
ii.  25.  k  Ibid.  xxi.  17.  '  Matt,  xviii.  20.  m  Heb.  xiii.  8, 
;1  1  John  v.  20.  °  Eph.  i.  3,  4. 

40 


300  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [gtER.  X, 

and  heirs.  As  such  they  were  considered,  when 
Christ,  that  he  might  become  their  near-kinsman, 
assumed  human  nature :  as  the  children  are  parta- 
kers of  flesh  and  blood,  he  also  himself  likewise  took 
part  of  the  same.0  As  such,  too,  they  were  considered 
when  he  died  to  redeem  them :  for  he  died,  that, 
consistently  with  law  and  justice,  he  might  gather 
together  in  one,  in  himself  and  in  one  family,  both 
on  earth  and  in  heaven,  the  children  of  God  that 
were  scattered  abroad  among  all  nations  and  in  a 
lost  condition.11  Consequently,  while  yet  uncalled, 
yea,  unredeemed,  they  were,  in  some  sense,  children, 
and  which  must  have  been  by  adoption.  Hence  it 
is,  that  all  who,  by  personal,  eternal  election,  are 
written  in  heaven,  are  denominated  first-born,  that 
is,  heirs.*1 — 2.  Their  redemption  by  Christ  is  perfect ; 
no  additional  sacrifice  being  required,  nor  any  fail- 
ure in  the  design  being  possible;  for  by  one  offer- 
ing he  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sanctified, 
(set  apart  in  him,  Jude  ver.  1.)  having  obtained 
eternal  redemption  for  us. r — 3.  In  Christ,  divine  jus- 
tice finds  a  perfect  satisfaction  for  all  their  sins. 
Hence,  as  in  him  we  have  redemption  through  his 
blood,  so  also  the  forgiveness  of  sins.s  God,  saith 
Paul  to  believers,  for  Christ's  sake  hath  forgiven 
you*  And,  as  forgiveness  precedes  on  the  ground  of 
the  complete  satisfaction  rendered  by  Christ  to  di- 
vine justice  for  all  the  sins  of  all  he  represented,  so 
it  is  perfect  and  irreversible.  It  is  perfect,  that  is, 
full  and  entire;  it  being  the  pardon  of  all  their  sins 
of  nature  and  life,  both  before  and  after  their  calling : 

o  Heb.  ii.  13—15.  P  John  xi.  51,  52.    Comp.  Eph.  i.  10. 

q  Heb.  xii.  22.  Rev.  xiii.  8.  Comp.  Exo.  iv.  22.  Deut.  xxi.  15—17. 
r  Heb.  x.  14.  ix.  12.  *  Eph.  i.  7.  « Ibid.  iv.  32. 


SER.  X.]  HIS    LRI31    AND    THUMMIM.  301 

I  will  cleanse  them,  saith  God,  from  all  their  iniqui- 
ty whereby  they  have  sinned  against  me,  and  I  will 
pardon  all  their  iniquities,  whereby  they  have  sinned 
and  whereby  they  have  transgressed  against  me" 
Nor  is  it  merely  full  and  entire,  but  also  irreversible. 
God  never  renews  the  charge  against  them  :  For 
saith  he,  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity  and  remember 
their  sin  no  more*  And,  the  more  abundantly  to 
comfort  believers,  he  assures  them  that  he  has  cast 
their  sins  behind  his  back,  and  into  the  depths  of 
the  sea  ;T  nay,  that  as  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west, 
so  far  hath  he  removed  our  transgressions  from 
us;  thus  signifying,  that,  as  what  is  behind  our  backs, 
or  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  is  unseen  by  us,  so  will 
He  not,  with  an  eye  of  Justice,  behold  our  sins  ;  and 
that,  as  the  eastern  point  in  the  heavens  can  never 
come  to  the  western,  so  neither  can  the  sins  of  those 
whom  He  has  pardoned  ever  be  charged  against 
them,  to  their  condemnation,  in  His  sight/ 

But  while  the  meritorious  cause  of  their  pardon  is 
complete  in  Christ,  the  manifestation  of  it  is  never 
given  to  them,  till,  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  are  made  to 
feel  the  bitterness  of  their  sins — to  mourn  over  them, 
and  to  realize  that  they  must  be  pardoned  for  Christ's 
sake,  or  sink  to  hell  under  the  sentence  of  the  law. 
This  they  realize  at  conversion  ;  when,  their  under- 
standings being  enlightened,  they  are  pricked  in  their 
hearts  with  keen  distress  for  sin  ;z  and  the  same  they 
realize  in  subsequent  experience ;  their  sins  always 
becoming  the  lothed  and  lamented  diseases  of 
their  souls,  before  they  receive  that  discovery  of 

u  Jer  xxxiii.  8.  w  Ibid.  xxxi.  34.  Heb.  viii.  1.2.  x.  17.  *  Is. 
xxxviii.  17.  Micah  vii.  19.  y  Psal.  ciii.  12.  z  Acts  ii.  37. 


302  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [SER.  X. 

pardon,  which  is  their  healing:  Bless  the  Lord,  O 
my  soul,  and  forget  not  all  his  benefits ;  who  for- 
giveth  all  thine  iniquities,  and  thereby  healeth  all  thy 
diseases* 

And  though  God  never  precedes  against  them 
according  to  the  covenant  of  works,  from  the 
curse  of  which  Christ  has  redeemed  them  ;b  yet,  for 
their  good  and  as  a  provision  of  the  covenant  of  grace, 
he  remembers  their  sins  in  a  way  of  fartherly  chas- 
tisement ;  /,  saith  he,  will  visit  their  transgressions 
with  a  rod,  and  their  iniquity  with  stripes.*  He 
chasteneth  us  for  our  profit,  that  we  might  be  par- 
takers of  his  holiness.  The  smart,  too,  must  precede 
the  benefit :  no  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth 
to  be  joyous,  but  grievous :  nevertheless  AFTERWARD 
ityieldeth  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  unto 
them  icho  are  exercised  thereby. d  To  believers,  there- 
fore, chastisements  are  medicinal,  or,  in  other  words, 
they  are  among  the  all  things  that  work  together 
for  their  good.6  Hence, — 4.  In  Christ,  the  elect  are 
all  blessed  with  a  perfection  of  justifying  righteous- 
ness. Christ,  being  found  holy  in  nature  and  harm- 
less in  life,  was  delivered  an  acceptable  sacrifice  for 
our  offenses,  and  (as  the  fullest  possible  evidence  of 
the  entire  satisfaction  which  he  thereby  rendered  to 
divine  justice,  for  all  the  sins  of  all  he  represented) 
was  raised  again  for  our  justification*  Herein  is 
founded  the  apostolic  challenge  on  our  behalf: 
Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God's 
elect  ?  It  is  God  that  justificth.  Who  is  he  that 
condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea,  rather 
that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of 

a  Psal.  ciii.  2,  3.  xxxviii.  1—8.     b  Gal.  iii.  13.      c  Psal.  Ixxxix. 
31—33.     a  Heb.  xii.  10,  11.     e  Rom.  viii.  28.     f  Rom.  iv.  25. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    UR1M    AND    THUMMlM.  303 

God,  who  also  makelh  intercession  for  us.s  In  a 
word,  Christ  is  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS  ;b 
and  for  the  comfort  of  every  true  believer,  it  is  re- 
vealed that  God  is  just  and  the  justifier  of  him 
that  believeth  in  Jesus* — that  Christ  is  the  end  of 
the  law  for  righteousness,  to  every  one  that  believeth^ 
and  that  by  him  all  that  believe  are  justified  from  all 
things.1  And — 5.  The  chosen  of  God  are  blessed 
in  Christ  with  an  indefeasable  title  to  the  heavenly 
inheritance.  This  is  that  eternal  life,  which  God 
who  cannot  lie  promised  before  the  world  began.™ 
And  to  whom  could  he  then  have  promised  it  but  to 
Christ,  as  the  Head  and  Representative  of  the  elect  1 
Accordingly,  Christ  is  the  First-born,  that  is,  the 
HEIR  among  many  brethren."  By  their  adoption, 
however,  as  his  brethren,  and  by  their  federal  union 
to  him  and  representation  in  him,  their  title  is  involv- 
ed in  his  and  rendered  inseparable  from  it :  For  if 
children  then  heirs :  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs 
with  Christ.0  And,  as  the  title  is  vested  in  him,  to 
him  belongs  the  honor  of  conferring  on  them  the  in- 
heritance; for  he,  as  Mediator,  possesseth  a  delegated 
power  over  all  flesh,  that  he  should  give  eternal  life 
to  as  many,  of  all  nations,  as  the  Father  hath  given 
him* 

3.  There  is  a  perfection  of  Spiritual  influence  in 
Christ :  for  God  giveth  not  the  Spirit  by  measure 
unto  him,  as  he  gave  it  to  the  prophets  and  apostles, 
but  in  all  the  fulness  thereof  stipulated  in  the  ever- 
lasting covenant.4  And  having  thus  granted  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  Christ,  as  the  vital  Head  of  the  elect,  he 

s  Rom.  viii  33, 34  h  Jer.  xxiii.  6.  J  Rom.  iii.  26.  k  Ibid.  x.  4. 
1  Acts  xiii.  39.  m  Tit.  i.  2.  n  Rom.  viii.  29.  °  Ibid.  ver.  17. 
p  John  xvii.  2.  q  Ibid.  iii.  34.  Acts  ii.  33. 


304  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI,  [SER.  X. 

communicates  to  them,  through  him,  such  measures 
of  that  Spirit  as' are  requisit  to  all  the  purposes  of 
their  experimental  salvation.  By  the  Spirit  thus 
given, — 1.  He  regenerates  them  :  Not  by  works  of 
righteousness  which  we  have  done,  said  Paul,  but  ac- 
cording to  his  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of 
regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
which  he  shed  on  us  abundantly,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Saviour.*  By  the  Spirit  so  communicated. — 2. 
He  gives  to  them  arid  increases  in  them,  the 
knowledge  of  Christ;  the  Holy  Ghost  being  the 
Spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowledge 
of  him.1  Thus, — 3.  We  have  all  the  understand- 
ing we  possess  of  spiritual  things  and  of  covenant- 
bequests  :  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his 
Spirit ;  and  we  have  received —  the  Spirit  ichich 
is  of  God,  that  we  might  know  the  things  that  are 
freely  given  to  us  of  God." — 4.  By  the  Spirit,  given 
to  us  by  the  Father,  through  the  Son,  we  have  all 
our  consolation,  as  new  creatures.  Thus  we  receive 
the  knowledge  and  consequently  the*  comfort  of  our 
adoption.  For  the  Father  having  predestinated  us 
to  the  adoption  of  children,  in  due  time  sends  the 
Spirit  of  his  Son  into  our  hearts  crying,  Abba, 
Father.™  Herein,  The  Spirit  itself,  beareth  witness 
with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God ; 
we  being  such  before,  by  adoption  and  regeneration. 
J3y  the  Spirit,  we  are  strengthened  with  might  in 
the  inner  man;  and  every  refreshing  season  we  en- 
joy, is  given  by  a  supply  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ.K  The  Spirit  also  receives  of  whatever  there 

r  Titus  iii.  5,  6.     «  Eph.  i.  17.     u  I  Cor.  ii.  10.  J2.      w  Eph.  i. 
5.     Gal.  iv.  6.      *  Rom.  viii.  15,  16.      Eph.  iii.  16.      Phil.  i.  19. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  305 

is  in  Christ,  which  is  designed  for  our  comfort,  and 
shows  it  unto  us  ;  as  for  instance,  his  justifying  right- 
eousness, his  pardon-procuring  blood  and  his  ever- 
availing  intercession/  He  likewise  interprets  to 
our  understandings  and  applies  to  our  cases,  the 
great  and  precious  promises  of  God,  and  is  there- 
fore stiled  that  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  whereby 
believers  are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption* 
In  short,  every  thing  in  our  hearts  or  lives,  from 
which  we  are  authorized  to  conclude  that  we  are  in  a 
gracious  state,  is  of  the  Spirit.  Are  we  enabled  to 
look  upon  him  whom  ice  have  pierced  and  mourn 
with  a  godly  sorrow  for  sin  ?  It  is  because  the 
Spirit  of  grace  has  been  poured  upon  us.a  Are  we 
filed  icith  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  and  hence 
caused  to  abound  in  hope  ?  It  is  through  the  pow- 
er of  the  Holy  Ghost. b  And,  if  our  tribulation  work- 
eth  patience,  our  patience  experience,  and  our  expe- 
rience hope — that  hope  which  maketh  not  ashamed, 
it  is  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  unto  us.c 
Moreover,  all  those  graces,  the  practical  exemplifica- 
tion of  which  evinces  regeneration  and  adorns  the 
Christian  life,  namely,  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering, 
gentleness,  faith,  (or  fidelity,)  meekness,  and  temper- 
ance, are  called  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  because  the 
principles  whence  they  spring,  were  implanted  •  by 
his  operation,  and  are  cherished  by  his  influence.6 
Let  us  then,  my  Christian  hearers,  be  sacredly  care- 
ful never  to  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit,  who,  to  us,  is 
emphatically  ho  PARACLETOS,  the  COMFORTER.  John 

y  John  xvi.  14.     z  Eph.  i.  13.  iv.  30.     a  Zech.  xii.  10.      b  Rom. 
xv.  13.   Ibid.v.  3— 5.      c  Gal.  v.  22,  23. 


306  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [SKR.    X. 

xv.  26.  Eph.  iv.  30.  Thus  it  is  evident,  that  as  the 
title  of  the  elect  to  eternal  life,  is  vested  in  Christ,  so 
their  meetness  for  it  is  produced  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
given  to  them  through  Christ ;  they  being  chosen  in 
him  to  salvation,  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit 
and  belief  of  the  truth.6  And  their  meetness,  as 
well  as  their  title,  is  indispensable  to  their  enjoy- 
ment of  the  inheritance ;  for  without  holiness  no 
man  shall  see  the  LordJ  Let  believers,  therefore,  so 
live  as  to  be  habitually  Giving  thanks  unto  the 
Father,  who,  by  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  hath 
made  us  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance  of 
the  saints  in  light ;  having  delivered  us  from  the 
power  of  darkness,  and  translated  us  into  the  king- 
dom of  his  dear  Son.s 

4.  In  Christ,  there  is  a  perfection  of  all  spiritual 
gifts — gifts  appropriate  to  all  the  members  of  his 
mystical  body,  to  qualify  them  severally  for  the  vari- 
ous stations  they  were  designed  to  occupy.  Accord- 
ingly, as,  to  confirm  his  mission  and  dispensation, 
"He  gave  some  apostles,  some  prophets  and  some 
evangelists,  and  bestowed  upon  them,  and,  in  their 
time,  upon  some  others,  extraordinary  gifts,  by 
which  they  were  enabled  to  work  miracles — foretell 
events — speak  with  tongues, — interpret  tongues, 
and  the  like  ;  so,  for  ordinary  purposes,  he  gave  and 
continues  to  give  pastors  and  teachers,  and  exhorters 
also,h  and  bestowed  and  continues  to  bestow  upon 
all  the  regenerate,  those  gifts  of  the  Spirit  which 
are  requisit  for  them ;  such  as  the  gift  of  spiritual 
discernment,  by  which  to  detect  false  teachers1 — the 
gift  of  prayer,  by  which  to  make  known,  that  is,  to 

e  2  Thess.  ii.  13.       f  Heb.  xii.  14.       *  Col.  i.  12,  13.       !'  Eph. 
iv.  11.  12.     Rom.  xii.  8.    '  1  John  ii.  18—27.  ir.  1—6. 


SER.  X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  307 

express  (at  least  in  private)  their  requests  unto  Godk — 
and  ,the  gifts  of  mutual  admonition  and  exhortation.1 
Truly  "there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same 
Spirit ;''  and  "differences  of  administrations,"  minis- 
tries or  services,  "but  the  same  Lord." m  Thus,  as 
the  precious  ointment  poured  on  Aaron's  head,  ran 
down  to  the  skirts  of  his  garments;  so  the  Holy  Spirit, 
given  without  measure  to  Christ,  descends  from  him, 
the  Head,  to  all  the  members  of  his  mystical  body, 
from  the  first  of  them  to  the  last,  and  from  the  most 
eminent  of  them  to  the  most  obscure.11  Moreover, 

5.  There  is  in  Christ  a  perfection  of  new-coven- 
ant promises.  These  were  all  so  made  to  him, 
that  they  were  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  elect,  on  condition 
of  his  complying  with  his  covenant-stipulations  on 
their  behalf.  And  that  he  has  done  so,  the  Father 
has  acknowledged,  in  raising  him  from  the  dead 
and  receiving  him  to  heaven :  wherefore,  all  the 
promises  of  God,  thus  made  to  Christ,  are  in  him 
yea,  and  in  him  Amen,  unto  the  glory  of  God  by 
us.0  These  promises  include  all  good  things  for 
the  heirs,  and  are  appropriate  to  all  conditions  and 
cases  among  the  regenerate  :  My  God,  saith  Paul, 
shall  supply  all  your  need,  according  to  his  riches 
in  glory  by  Christ  Jesus.p 

In  the  light  of  these  revealed  facts,  it  must  be 
evident  to  us,  my  believing  hearers,  that  Christ  is 
indeed  full  of  grace  and  truth, q  and  that  of  his  ful- 
ness have  all  we  received;  also,  that  the  communication 
made  to  us,  is  not  of  debt,  but  of  grace ; — it  being 
grace  for  grace  ;r  that  is,  favor  flowing  from 

k  Philip,  iv.  6.  l  Rom.  xiv.  14.  Heb.  x.  25.  m  1  Cor.  xii.  4, 
5.  n  Psal.  cxxiii.  and  Rom.  xii.  °  2  Cor.  i.  20.  p  Philip,  iv.  19. 
Comp.  Ps.  xxxiv.  10.  Ixxxiv.  11.  «  John  i.  14.  r  Ibid.  ver.  16. 

41 


308  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  X. 

favor — favor  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  who  is  God's 
first  and  greatest  gift,  and  the  pledge  and  me- 
dium of  every  other :  or,  grace  upon  grace,*  Christ 
— the  Spirit— pardon— j  ustification— consolation,  &c. 
all  in  succession :  or,  one  communication  of  grace 
after  another  ;  for  he  who  gives  regenerating  grace, 
giveth  more  grace;  even  constantly — grace  to  help 
in  tim,e  of  need.6  Well,  therefore,  might  Christ  say 
to  Paul,  (and  the  same  is  applicable  to  every  believ- 
er,) My  grace  is  sufficient  for  tfiee — my  strength  is 
made  perfect  in  weakness  ;*  and  well  may  all,  who 
through  grace  have  believed,  say,  with  Peter,  We 
believe,  that  through  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  we  shall  be  saved" 

Thus  we  perceive,  that  THUMMIM  perfections,  as 
well  as  URIM  lights,  are  with  CHRIST.  And, 

III.  In  him,  believers  realize  all  that  was  done  by 
the  high-priest,  while  he  officiated  with  these  sacred 
articles  upon  his  breast.  For, 

First,  As  the  high-priest,  when  he  had  on  the 
Urim  and  Thummin,  bore  the  names  of  the  children 
of  Israel  near  his  heart/  so  the  persons  of  all  the 
elect,  by  name,  lie  near  the  heart  of  Christ.  There 
they  lay,  when,  in  the  eternal  council,  He  engaged 
his  heart  to  approach  unto  God  on  their  T>ehalf  ;* 
and  there  they  lay,  while,  as  their  Representative,  he 
obeyed,  and  died,  and  rose  again/  Nor  can  sin,  or 
death,  or  hell  remove  them  thence:  He  will  rest  in 
his  love*  Truly  they  are  a  people  near  unto  him.* 

Secondly,  As  the  high-priest,  in  his  intercourse 

*  See  this  version  of  %*e i»  *m  %*£ tros  defended  by  Blackwall, 
Sac.  Class.  Vol.  1.  p.  126, 127. 

» Jas.  iv.  6.  Heb.  ir.  16.  *  2  Cor.  xii.  9.  u  Acts  xv.  11. 
w  Exo.  xxviii.  30.  x  Jer.  xxx.  21.  *  John  xiii.  1.  z  Zeph.  iii.  17. 
51  Ps.  cxlviii.  14. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMIM.  309 

with  God,  represented  none  but  the  children  of 
Israel,  (their  names  only  being  upon  his  breast- 
plate ;b)  so  Christ,  in  his  mediatorial  capacity,  rep- 
resents none  but  the  elect,  (they  only  being  chosen 
in  him  to  this  privilege  ;c)  and  therefore,  as  the  high- 
priest,  on  the  day  of  expiation,  offered  the  atoning 
sacrifices  only  for  national  Israel ; d  so  Christ,  the 
antitype,  offered  himself  only  for  the  elect,  the  true 
Israel  of  God :  He  loved  the  church  and  gave  him- 
self for  it* 

Thirdly,  As  the  high-priest,  having  covered  the 
mercy-seat  with  a  cloud  of  sweet  incense/ entered 
the  most  holy  place  with  the  blood  of  the  slain  sa- 
crifices; so  Christ  having  given  himself  for  us,  an 
offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God,  for  a  sweet  smelling 
savor,g  by  his  own  blood  entered  once  into  the  holy 
place,  heaven  itself,  having  obtained  eternal  re- 
demption for  us.h 

The  manner,  too,  in  which  the  high-priest,  by  di- 
vine order,  disposed  of  the  blood  of  the  sin-offering, 
when  he  had  brought  it  within  the  vail,  is  full  of 
instruction. — 1.  He  sprinkled  of  it  upward.  See  p. 
278.  Thus  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  shed  for 
his  people,  first  had  reference  to  heaven,  as  a  satis- 
faction to  divine  justice  for  their  sins :  He  suffered 
the  just  for  the  unjust  to  bring  us  to  God.1 — 2.  The 
high-priest  sprinkled  of  the  same  blood  downward. 
See  also  p.  278.  This  he  did  seven  times  ;k  which  might 
typify  the  successive  applications  of  the  cleansing 
and  peace-speaking  virtues  of  the  richer  blood  of 
Christ,  to  be  made  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  the  elect 

bExo.  xxviii.  21.  29.  cEph.  i.  4.  d  Levit.  xvi.  11.  15. 
e  Epb.  v.  25.  f  Levit.  xvi.  12.  13.  g  Eph.  v.  2.  h  Heb.  ix. 
12.  24.  i  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  k  Levit.  xvi.  14,  15. 


310  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI,  [SER.  X. 

of  all  nations  and  of  all  generations.1  And  accord- 
ingly, when  arrived  in  heaven,  their  song  will  be, 
Unto  him  that  loved  us  and  washed  us  from  our 
sins  in  his  own  blood ;  for,  (addressing  him,)  thou 
wast  slain  and  hast  redeemed  us  unto  God  by  thy 
blood  out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people 
and  nation.  Rev.  i.  5.  v.  9.* 

The  various  uses,  likewise,  which,  on  the  day  of 
expiation,  were  made  of  the  blood  of  the  sin-offer- 
ings, are  very  instructive  to  us. 

With  this  blood,  the  high-priest,  having  taken  it 
within  the  vail  where  resided  the  Shecheenah,  the 
symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  made  an  atone- 
ment for  the  holy  place,  that  is,  for  the  holy  of  ho- 
lies^ called  also  the  holy  sanctuary  ;m  whereby  was 
signified,  that  through  the  expiatory  sacrifices  offered 
for  the  children  of  Israel,  on  the  day  of  atonement, 
they  were  ceremonially  accepted  before  God.  And 
with  the  residue  of  the  blood,  the  high-priest,  hav- 
ing brought  it  with  him  out  of  the  holy  of  holies, 
made  an  atonement  for  the  tabernacle  of  the  con- 
gregation, meaning  the  court  of  the  people,  defiled 

1  Heb.  ix.  19—22.  x.  22.  xii.  24.  xiii.  20.  1  Pet.  i.  2.  1  John  i.  7. 

*  As  seven  days  complete  a  week,  and  as  one  day  is  with  the 
Lord  as  a  thousand  years;  2  Pet.  iii.  8;  it  is  not  an  improbable 
conjecture,  that  seven  thousand  years  will  complete  the  duration  of 
time.  If  so,  the  sevenfold  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  atonement 
might  mystically  signify,  that  the  atonement  of  Christ,  who,  in 
God's  account,  was  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  Rev.  xiii.  8,  will  remain  in  full  virtue  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  Then  will  the  whole  redeemed  family  be  presented  a  glo- 
rious church  without  spot  or  wrinkle  or  blemish  or  any  such  thing. 
Eph.  v.  27. 

t  See  Note  on  p.  278,  279. 
mLevit.  xvi.  16.33. 


SER.    X.]  HIS   UR1M    AND   THUMMIM.  311 

by  their  sins0 — for  the  altar,  the  golden  altar  of  in- 
cense, in  like  manner  defiledp — and  for  the  sins  of 
the  priests,  part  of  whose  daily  service  was  perform- 
ed at  that  altarq — and  for  all  the  sins  of  all  the 
children  of  Israel.' 

How  similar,  yet  how  much  more  efficacious  is  the 
atonement  of  Christ !  Having  suffered  the  just  for 
the  unjust,  his  entrance  into  heaven  by  his  own  blood, 
denoted  the  Father's  acceptance  of  his  obedience 
and  sacrifice,  as  a  perfect  satisfaction  to  law  and 
justice  for  all  whom,  in  his  obedience  and  death,  he 
represented.8  Hence,  in  particular,  his  atonement 
avails — 1.  To  procure  their  pardon  when,  under 
conviction  of  their  lost  estate,  they  go  to  God  plead- 
ing what  Christ  hath  done  and  suffered.  Such  is 
the  tenor  of  God's  covenant  with  his  Son  on  their 
behalf:  /  will,  saith  he,  be  merciful  to  their  unright- 
eousness, and  their  sins  and  their  iniquities  will  I 
remember  no  more.* — 2.  To  procure  the  pardon  of 
the  sins  and  imperfections  with  which  they  are 
chargeable  as  believers.  The  visible  church  is  the 
antitype  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation,  and, 
like  that,  is  variously  defiled.  Believers,  however 
consciencious  and  watchful,  are  guilty,  not  only  of 
many  faults  in  private,  domestic  and  civil  life,  but 
also  of  much  sin  even  in  their  solemn  assemblies. 
They  severally  carry  with  them  a  body  of  sin  and 
death,  to  the  house  of  God.  Hence,  what  pride  of 
heart !  what  swarms  of  vain  and  evil  thoughts ! 
what  wanderings  of  mind  and  affection !  what  dull 
formality  and  stupid  insensibility  !  nay,  what  a  want 
of  godly  sincerity  and  true  engagedness  of  soul, 

0  Levit.  xvi.  16.      *  Ver.  18,  19.         <i  Exo.  xxvii.  21.      r  Levit. 
xvi.  33, 34.        *  Eph.  i.  6.       *  Heb.  viii.  12. 


312  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  X. 

often  attend  them  in  their  public  devotions !  By 
reason  of  these  effects  of  their  depravity,  believers 
are  sometimes  tempted  to  "  neglect  the  assembling 
of  themselves  together  ;"  thinking  it  impossible  that 
their  services,  mingled  with  so  many  imperfections, 
can  be  acceptable  to  a  heart-searching  God.  But 
let  them  remember,  that  Christ,  as  typified  in  Aaron, 
bears  the  iniquity  of  their  holy  things. u 

Of  this  all-important  fact,  a  striking  illustration 
was  given  in  the  defilement  and  cleansing  of  the 
golden  altar  of  incense.  This  altar,  I  understand 
to  have  been  a  figure  of  the  throne  of  grace.  It 
stood,  not  in  the  most  holy  but  in  the  holy  place,  to 
signify,  that,  not  heaven  but  a  state  of  grace  upon 
earth,  is  the  place  of  prayer.  And,  as  nothing 
intervened  between  it  and  the  shecheenah,  the  sym- 
bol of  [the  divine  presence,  but  the  vail,  before 
which  it  stood,  it  was  said  to  be  before  the  Lord.™ 
Thus,  when  believers  come  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
they  come  before  JEHOVAH,  and  must  conceive  of 
nothing  as  intervening  between  him  and  them  but 
Christ,  the  one  Mediator  between  God  and  men, 
whose  human  nature  was  the  antitype  of  the  vail, 
and  by  the  sacrifice  of  which  he  hath  rent  the  vail, 
and  consecrated  for  us  a  new  and  living  way  of 
access  to  God.x  But  the  golden  altar  itself,  at 
which  the  priests  officiated,  was,  by  their  daily 
approaches  unto  it,  rendered  ceremonially  unclean. 
Therefore  the  high-priest  was  required  to  make  an 
atonement  for  it  annually,  with  the  blood  of  the  sin- 
offerings,  that  he  might  hallow  it  from  the  unclean- 
ness  of  the  children  of  Israel7  Did  not  this  typi- 

«Exo.  xxviii.  38.          w  Levit.  xvi.   18.          x  Heb.  x.   19,  20. 
it.  xvi.  18,  19.  Comp.  Exo.  xxx.  10. 


SER.   X.]  HIS    URIM   AND    THUMMIM.  313 

cally  signify,  that  believers,  though  made  priests 
unto  God,*  are  chargeable  with  sin  even  in  their 
daily  approaches  to  the  throne  of  grace — and  yet, 
that  through  Christ,  the  true  High-Priest,  who -hath 
made  an  atonement  for  all  their  sins,  they  may  come 
to  that  throne  with  safety  and  success1!  We  enter 
into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus*  Let  us  there- 
fore come  boldly,  that  is,  with  an  authorized  free- 
dom, to  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may  obtain 
mercy,  and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need.b 

Upon  the  golden  altar,  moreover,  the  high- priest 
daily,  both  morning  and  evening,  burnt  sweet  in- 
cense, kindled  with  fire  taken  from  off  the  brazen 
altar,  on  which  he  offered  the  sacrifices  for  sin." 
And,  by  a  manifest  allusion  thereto,  an  Angely 
even  Christ,  the  Angel  of  the  covenant,  is  said  to 
offer  much  incense  with  the  prayers  of  the  saints 
upon  the  golden  altar  before  the  throne  ;d  by  which 
incense  is  meant  nothing  less  than  the  rich  and 
fragrant  perfume  of  his  own  meritorious  sacrifice 
and  ever-availing  intercession,  whereby  the  devo- 
tions of  believers,  though  imperfect  as  preceding 
from  them,  obtain  a  gracious  acceptance  with  their 
heavenly  Father :  they  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices, 
acceptable  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ.* 

And  farther,  as  the  high-priest,  on  the  great  day 
of  expiation,  made  an  atonement  for  the  priests, 
and  for  all  the  people,  even  for  all  the  children  of 
Israel,  and  that  for  all  their  sins?  so,  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  Christ,  by  the  offering  up  of  himself, 
made  an  atonement  satisfactory  to  divine  Justice, 
for  all  the  sins  of  all  the  elect,  the  mystical  Israel 

z  Rev.  i.  6.  a  Heb.  x.  19.  b  Chap.  iv.  16.  c  Exo.  xxx.  7,  8. 
d  Rev  viii.  3,  4.  e  1  Pet.  ii.  5.  ' Levit.  xvi.  33,  34. 


314  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [SER.    X* 

of  God,  both  those  who  were  called  before  his 
death  arid  those  who  remained  to  be  called  after- 
ward, and  whether  chosen  to  public  or  to  private 
stations  in  the  church. s  Hence  all  true  believers, 
however  obscure,  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of 
the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being 
the  chief  corner-stone;  and  receive  like  precious 
faith  with  them.h 

The  extent  and  efficacy  of  the  Redeemer's  atone- 
ment, may  also  be  illustrated  by  this  type,  in  a  some- 
what different  manner;  yet  without  contradicting 
any  thing  I  have  said  in  relation  to  it- 
Did'  the  high-priest  with  the  blood  of  the  sin  offer- 
ings, make  an  atonement  for  the  holy  of  holies, 
whereby  he  purified  the  patterns  of  things  in  the 
heavens  ?  So  Christ,  with  his  own  bloody  by  which 
he  entered  into  heaven,  purified  the  heavenly  things 
themselves,  that  is,  met  the  requirements  of  divine 
justice  and  of  the  holiness  of  the  place,  by  making 
an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  those,  i  who  under  the 
former  dispensation  had  been  received  there  upon 
his  suretiship ;  they  having  all  died  in  faith.1  Here- 
in God  declared  his  righteousness  in  requiring  a 
perfect  satisfaction  to  his  justice,  for  the  remission, 
or  passing  over,  of  sins  that  were  past,  called  also 
the  transgressions  that  were  under  the  first  testa- 
ment.1' 

Did  the  high-priest,  on  the  same  day  and  by  the 
same  blood,  make  an  atonement  in  the  holy  place 
for  the  sins  of  the  priests,  who  there  officiated  at 
the  golden  altar  ?  So  Christ,  at  the  same  time  he 

*  Rom.  iii.  25,  26.  h  Eph.  ii.  19—22.  2  Pet.  i.  1.  'Heb.  ix. 
23.  xi.  13.  kRom.  iii.  25.  Heb.  ix.  15. 


SER.  X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMiHIM.  315 

atoned  for  the  sins  of  those  who  were  then  in  heav- 
en, and  by  the  same  sacrifice,  atoned  also  for  the 
sins  of  believers  then  on  earth,  who  by  him  had 
access  to  the  throne  of  grace,  of  which  the  golden 
altar  was  a  type :  For  their  sakes,  said  he  of  his 
believing  disciples,  I  sanctify,  that  is,  devote  my- 
self.1 Thus  God  declared  his  righteousness,  that 
then  and  ever  afterward,  he  might  be  manifestly 
just,  though  the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth  in 
Jesus™  But  who  are  they,  of  every  generation, 
that  believe  in  Jesus  ?  Even  the  same  that  were 
chosen  in  him  and  ordained  to  eternal  life" 

And,  as  the  high-priest,  on  the  day  of  expiation, 
made  an  atonement,  not  only  for  the  holy  of  holies, 
a  figure  of  the  heavenly  state,  and  for  the  holy  place, 
in  which  the  priests  officiated,  and  which  was  the 
figure  of  a  believing  state,  but  also  for  all  the  people, 
even  for  all  the  children  of  Israel,  and  that  for  all 
their  sins ;°  so  Christ,  by  the  one  offering  up  of  him- 
self, atoned  not  only  for  all  the  sins  of  those  who 
were  then  in  heaven,  and  for  all  the  sins  of  all  be- 
lievers then  on  earth,  but  equally  for  all  the  sins  of 
all  the  millions  of  God's  elect,  then  remaining  to  be 
called  into  being  and  to  be  called  by  grace.  Such 
an  atonement  God  required,  That  in  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  fulness  of  times,  according  to  his  good 
pleasure  which  he  hath  purposed  in  himself,  he  might 
gather  together  in  one,  that  is,  in  one  glorious  fam- 
ily, all  things  in  Christ,  meaning  the  souls  and  bod- 
ies of  all  whom  he  hath  chosen  in  him  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world ;  both  which  are  in  heaven, 


'John  xvii.  19.       »  Rom.  iii.  26.        n  Eph.  i.  4.     Acts  xiii.  48. 
6  Levit.  xvi.  16.  18.  33,  34. 

42 


S16  THE  BLESSING   OP   LEVI.  [SEE.  *. 

(the  spirits  of  the  just,  already  made  perfect,)  and 
which  are  on  earth,  (whether  called  or  uncalled, 
born  or  unborn,)  even  in  him,  in  whom  the  whole 
elect  family  are  alike  beheld  and  loved — redeemed 
and  represented — and  shall  be  alike  sanctified  and 
glorified. ,p  To  precede. 

As  whomsoever  and  whatsoever  the  high-priest, 
by  the  blood  of  the  sin- offer  ings,  made  an  atone- 
ment for,  he  thereby  ceremonially  reconciled  ;q  s& 
all  for  whom  Christ  shed  his  precious  blood,  as  an 
atonement  for  sin,  are  thereby  effectually  reconciled 
to  divine  Justice :  we  are  reconciled  to  God  by  the 
death  of  his  Son.r  This  was  done  at  once.  But,  in 
consequence  thereof,  God,  through  Christ,  com- 
municates his  Spirit  to  the  elect,  and  thereby  pro- 
duces in  them  a  mental  reconciliation  to  himself, 
You,  saith  an  apostle  to  believers,  that  were  some- 
time alienated,  and  enemies  in  your  mind  by  wicked 
works,  yet  now  hath  he  reconciled*  In  this  sense, 
God  was  and  still  is,  reconciling  the  world  unto  him- 
self— that  is,  by  his  Spirit,  convincing  sinners,  Gen- 
tiles as  well  as  Jews,  of  their  condemned  and  help- 
less condition,  according  to  the  covenant  of  works, 
and  leading  them  by  faith  to  Christ,  who  is  the  end 
of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believ- 
eth ;  and  this  he  does  not  imputing  their  trespasses 
unto  them?  for  by  him  (Christ)  all  that  believe  are 
justified  from  all  things"  and,  as  such,  blessed  with 
the  non-imputation  of  sin:  Bhssed  is  the  man  to 
whom  the  Lord  will  not  impute  sin" 

p  Eph.  i.  9,  10.  Comp.  ver.  3,  4,  5.  Chap.  ii.  4.  5.  John  xi. 
52,  Heb.  xii.  23.  Acts  xx.  32.  Rom.  viii.  17,  18.  29,  30.  1  Cor. 
xv.  49—58.  q  Levit.  xvi.  20.  Comp.  ver.  33,  34.  and  2  Chron. 
xxix.  24.  r  Rom.  v.  10.  8  Col.  i.  21.  *  2  Cor.  v,  19.  u  Acts 
xiii.  39.  wRom.iv.8. 


»ER.  X.]  HIS    URIM   AND    THUMMIM.  3l? 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  that  the  high-priest 
performed  his  piacular  work  alone — that  no  man, 
and  therefore,  not  even  a  Levite  or  an  ordinary 
priest  to  help  him,  was  suffered  to  be  in  the  taberna-* 
cle,  in  any  of  the  holy  apartments  thereof,  when  he 
went  in  to  make  the  various  atonements  specified  ;x 
for  even  so  Christ  had  no  assistance  from  any  of 
his  people  in  making  satisfaction  to  divine  Justice 
for  their  sins.  "  He"  alone  "  was  wounded  for  our 
transgressions  and  bruised  for  our  iniquities" — He 
alone  "  put  away  sin"  and  that  "  by  the  sacrifice  of 
himself" — yea,  "  His  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his 
own  body  on  the  tree."y  Nor  will  he  employ  his 
saints  in  destroying  their  personal  enemies,  but  will 
do  it  himself.  Speaking  of  this,  by  anticipation, 
he  says,  "  I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone;  and 
of  the  people,"  the  saints,  "  there  was  none  with  me : 
for  I  will  tread  them,"  the  antichristian  enemies  of 
the  church,  "  in  mine  anger  and  trample  them  in  my 
fury ;  and  their  blood  shall  be  sprinkled  upon  my 
garments,  and  I  will  stain  all  my  raiment.  For  the 
day  of  vengeance  is  in  mine  heart  and  the  year  of 
my  redeemed  is  come.'jz 

To  the  memorable  day  of  annual  atonement,  be- 
longed also  the  singular  ordinance  of  the  scape- 
goat.* For  the  record  of  the  directions,  which  the 
Lord  gave  to  Moses  concerning  what  the  high-priest 
should  do  on  that  day,  contains  the  following.  "He 
shall  take  of  the  congregation  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  two  kids  of  the  goats  for  a  sin  offering ...  he 

»Levit.  xvi.  17.  rls.  liii.  5.  Heb.  ix.  26.  1  Pet.  ii.  24. 
*  Is.  Ixiii.  3,  4.  Comp.  Chap.  lix.  14—16.  and  i.  26—28. 

*  This  ordinance,  however,  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  that 
in  Chap.  xiv.  49—53. 


318  THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVI.  [SER/X. 

shall  take  the  two  goats,  and  present  them  before  the 
Lord,  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congre- 
gation. And  Aaron  shall  cast  lots  upon  the  two 
goats  ;  one  lot  for  the  LORD,  and  the  other  lot  for 
the  scape-goat.  And  Aaron  shall  bring  the  goat 
upon  which  the  LORD'S  lot  fell,  and  offer  him  for  a 
sin-offering.  But  the  goat  on  which  the  lot  fell  to 
be  the  sca/pc-goat,  shall  be  presented  alive  before 
the  LORD,  to  make  an  atonement  with  him,  and  to  let 
him  go  for  a  scape-goat  into  the  wilderness.5'* 

Accordingly,  the  high-priest  having  slain  the  goat, 
which  by  lot  was  devoted  to  the  LORD,  as  a  sin-offer- 
ing for  the  people,*  and  having  with  the  blood  there- 
of completed  the  work  of  ceremonial  reconciliation,1* 
proceded  to  comply  with  this  additional  injunction : 
"Aaron  shall  lay  both  his  hands  upon  the  head  of 
the  live  goat ;  and  confess  over  him  all  the  iniqui- 
ties of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  all  their  transgress- 
ions in  all  their  sins,"  that  is,  all  their  sins  of  every 
kind,  " putting  them,"  by  imputation,  "upon  the 
head  of  the  goat,  and  shall  send  him  away  by  the 
hand  of  a  jit  man\  into  the  wilderness.  And,"  as  a 

*  Levit.  xvi.  5.  7,  8,  9,  10.  That  a  goat,  in  many  respects  of- 
fensive, and  even  a  scripture-emblem  of  a  wicked  person,  was  for 
either  of  these  purposes,  chosen  as  a  type  of  the  holy  Jesus,  may 
seem  strange.  But  it  served  mystically  to  signify — 1.  That 
He  would  be  manifested  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh.  Rom.  viii.  3. 
And — 2.  That  having  the  sins  of  the  elect  placed  to  his  account, 
He  would  be  numbered  with  the  transgressors  and  treated  as  their 
substitute.  Is.  liii.  6.  12.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  Besides,  as  a  goat, 
however  offensive,  was  legally  clean ;  Deut  xiv.  3 ;  so  Christ, 
though  despised  and  rejected  of  men,  is  chosen  of  God  and  precious. 
Is.  liii.  3.  1  Pet.  ii.  4. 

a  Levit.  xvi.  15.         b  Ibid.  ver.  20. 

f  T\y  t?'X  Eesh  Itti,  literally  signifies  An  opportune  man.  Levi, 
under  ny  Eath,  time.  Or  A  man  of  opportunity  ;  that  is,  a  suita- 
ble man  Providentially  present. 


SER.  IX.]  HIS    URIM   AND    THUMMIM.  319 

special  favor  to  Israel,  "  the  goat  shall  bear  upon 
him  all  their  iniquities  unto  a  land  not  inhab- 
ited ;*  and  he,"  the  fit  man,  "shall  let  go  the  goat 
in  the  wilderness."0 

What  was  typified  by  the  goat  that,  by  lot,  ("the 
whole  desposing"  of  which  "  is  of  the  Lord,"d)  was 
devoted  as  a  sin-ofiering  for  Israel,  is  not  disputed 
among  Christians  ;  all  are  agreed,  that  it  prefigured 
Christ,  who  "  being  delivered  by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  fore-knowledge  of  God,"  fell  an  inno- 
cent victim  to  avenging  Justice  for  his  guilty  people,8 
But  what  was  mystically  signified  by  Azazel  the 
scape-goat,  is  far  from  being  obvious ;  and  therefore 
has  been  the  subject  of  various  conjectures.f  My 

*  mn  pK  Erets  gezerah  may  justly  be  rendered  A  land  of  cut* 
ting  off,  or  a  land  of  separation,  where  their  iniquities,  by  the 
atonement,  should  be  entirely  cut  of,  or  separated  from  them  ; 
rpTJ  gezerah,  being  from  11-1  gazar,  to  cut  off  or  separate.  See 
Parkhurst  andBate  under  "in.  And  comp.  Ezek.  xli.  12, 13, 14, 15. 

c  Levit.  xvi.  21,  22.  d  Pror.  xvi.  33.  e  Acts  ii.  23. 

t  Among  Biblical  Criticks,  some  of  high  distinction,  contend 
that  SlKTy  azazel,  which  we  renders  or  the  scape-goat  does  not 
mean  the  goat  itself,  but  either  some  mountain  of  that  name,  to 
which  the  goat  was  sent ;  So  Le  Clerk  ;  or  some  demon,  to  which 
it  was  delivered  ;  So  Spencer  ;  the  prefix  h  lamed  signifying  to  or 
unto,  as  well  as  for.  Accordingly,  Bp.  Patrick  and  Dr.  Gill,  per- 
haps led  by  Spencer,  supposed  the  live  goat  to  typify  Christ,  as  ex- 
posed to  the  temptations  of  Satan  in  the  wilderness.  But,  as  the 
live  goat  was  not  sent  into  the  wilderness,  till  after  the  other  was 
slain,  and  its  blood  was  carried  within  the  vail,  their  application  of 
the  type  implies,  that  the  temptations  of  Christ  did  not  occur  till 
after  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  whereas  we  know,  that  they 
occurred  before  his  crucifixion. 

Bochart,  not  much  amiss,  affirms  that  SfKty  azazel  signifies 
departure  or  removal.  De  animal.  Sacr.  P.  I.  lib.  55.  The 
literal  signification  of  the  word,  however,  including  its  prefix,  must 
be  gathered  thus  :  h  lamed  for,  \y  az  a  goat,  and  STK  azal  to  go 
away  or  wander  about ;  which  together,  may  be  rendered  for  the 


320  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [SER.  X. 

own  opinion  is,  that  it  was  chiefly  designed  to  typ- 
ify the  effect  of  Christ's  vicarious  death,  and  the 
illustration  thereof,  which  he  would  give  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the  gospel. — 1.  The  effect  of  Christ's  vica- 
rious death ;  for,  as  all  the  sins  of  national  Israel, 
ceremonially  expiated  by  the  blood  of  the  slain  goat, 
were,  by  the  other,  borne  away  into  a  land  of  cutting 
off,  or  ofseperation ;  so  all  the  sins  of  mystical  Israel 
being  laid  on  Christ,  and  effectually  expiated  by  his 
precious  blood,  shed  as  a  satisfactory  atonement  to 
divine  Justice,  are,  by  consequence,  virtually  "re- 
moved from  them,  as  far  as  the  east  is  from  the 
west."f    And — 2.  The  illustration  thereof,  which  he 
would  give  in  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel:  for,  as 
the  high-priest,  having  made  an  atonement  for  the 
people  by  the  blood  of  the  slain  goat,  sent  the  live 
goat,  ceremonially  laden  with  their  sins   into  the 
wilderness  ;g  so  Christ,    "  being  delivered  for   our 
offenses  and  raised  again  for  our  justification,"  there- 
upon sent  the  report  thereof,  by  the  gospel,  into  the 
gentile  world,  called  the  wilderness  of  the  people* 
To  make  this  illustration,  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  is  eminently  adapted ;  it  is  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation,  the  scope  of  which  is  to  show,  that 
God  by  imputing  the  sins  of  the  elect  to  Christ, 
"  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin ; 
that,"  by  his  imputing  to  us  what  Christ  hath  done 
and  suffered,  "  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness 
of  God  in  him ;"  that  is,  that  we  might  be  constitu- 

f  Is.  liii.  6,  10,  11.    Psal.  ciii.  12.       *  Levit.  xvi.  21.      h  Ezek. 
xx.  35. 

goat  that  goetk,  or  is  sent  away  and  wandereth  about.  See  Tay- 
lor's Heb.  Lex.  under  \y.  Our  received  version  of  the  word,  there- 
fore, is  not  exceptionable. 


SEE.  X.]  HI»   UR1M   AND    THUMM1M.  321 

ted  righteous  in  God's  account,  and  in  a  manner 
agreeable  to  the  righteousness  and  holiness  of  his 
nature  and  his  law.1 

The  scape-goat,  however,  in  bearing  away  the 
sins  of  national  Israel,  atoned  for  by  the  blood  of 
its  fellow,  typified  the  effect  of  Christ's  vicarious 
death,  in  removing  the  sins  of  mystical  Israel,  not 
only  virtually,  but  also  experimentally.  For  God 
having  accepted  the  death  of  Christ  as  a  satisfac- 
tion to  his  Justice  for  our  sins,  through  him,  gives 
his  Holy  Spirit  unto  us,  by  whose  regenerating  and 
enlightening  operations  we  are  caused  to  feel  and 
bewail  the  evil  of  sin — nay,  are  enabled  by  faith,  a 
fruit  of  the  Spirit,  to  look  upon  him  whom  we  have 
pierced  and  mourn,  and  then  grants  to  us  the  mani- 
festation of  pardon,  by  which  the  guilt  and  burden 
of  sin  are  removed  from  our  troubled  consciences, 
and  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ* 

Nor  was  it  without  a  typical  design,  that  azazel, 
the  scape-goat,  after  being  conducted  by  afit  man 
into  the  wilderness,  was  there  let  go.  For  so  the 
ceremonial  law,  which  required  that  such  animals 
should  be  bound  and  offered,  is  done  away  in  Christ;1 
and  the  gospel-report  thereof,  long  confined  among 
the  Jews,  is  made  free  to  all  nations.1"  And  though, 
in  the  mystical  sense,  &fit  man  for  this  purpose,  is 
any  one  qualified  and  sent  by  Christ  to  preach  the 
gospel,  yet,  primarily  and  eminently,  such  a  man 
was  found  in  Paul,  who  was  specially  ordained  a 
preacher,  an  apostle,  a  teacher  of  the  gentiles*  and 

i  2  Cor.  v.  31.  k  Acts  ii.  33.  37.  Titus  iii.  5, 6,  Zech.  xii. 
10.  Rom.  v.  i.  12  Cor.  iii.  14.  Heb.  x.  5.  m  Matt.  x.  5.  compared 
with  Matt,  xviii.  19.  and  Mark  xvi.  15.  n  1  Tim.  ii.  7. 


322  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [SER.  X- 

who,  understanding  Judaism  to  be  abolished?  "was 
determined  not  to  know,"  that  is,  to  make  known 
among  his  hearers,  "  any  thing"  as  a  ground  of  hope 
for  lost  sinners,  "save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  cru- 
cified."' 

But  while  the  above  may  justly  be  esteemed,  what 
was  chiefly  prefigured  by  the  uses  made  of  the  two 
goats  respectively,  on  the  day  of  expiation,  we  can 
scarcely  read  their  history,  without  beholding,  as,  in 
the  slain  goat,  a  type  of  Christ  put  to  death  in  the, 
flesh,  so,  in  the  live  goat,  a  type  of  him,  as  quicken- 
cd  by  the  Spirit ;  or  rather,  as  remaining  alive  in 
his  mediatorial  office,  even  while  his  body  was  un*- 
der  the  power  of  death/  Nor  is  it  well  possible  for  us, 
to  contemplate  those  two  animals  brought  before  the 
Lord,  by  whose  decision  one  of  them  must  inevita- 
bly die,  without  thinking  of  Christ  and  his  church, 
the  latter  as  the  offender,  the  former  as  her  Surety, 
on  one  of  whom,  divine  Justice,  required  that  the 
penalty  of  the  law  should  be  executed,  nor  without 
perceiving,  that  the  lot,  "  by  the  determinate  counsel 
of  God,"  falling  upon  HIM — she  thereby  escaped.  To 
have  required  both  to  suffer,  would  have  been  in- 
consistent with  justice,  human  or  divine.  "  If  there- 
fore ye  seek  me,"  said  Christ  to  the  officers,  sent 
to  take  him,  "let  these,"  pointing  to  his  disciples, 
"  let  these  go  their  way."8  And  accordingly,  it  is 
written,  "Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us.'H 

While,  however,  we  thus  contemplate  Christ  as 
the  antitype  of  the  Jewish  high-priest,  we  must 

P  2  Cor.  iii.  13.         q  1  Cor.  ii.  2.         r  1  Pet.  iii.  18.     John  iii- 
13.     Luke  xxiii.  43.         *  John  xviii.  8.         l  Gal.  iii.  13. 


SER.  X.]  HIS    UR1M    AND    THUMMIM.  323 

never  forget,  that  in  all  things  he  has  the  pre-emi- 
nence"    This  he  has, 

1.  Personally.     He  is  not,  like  the  Jewish  high- 
priest,  a  mere  man,  but  "  the  Son  of  God,"  clothed 
in  human  nature.w     And  though  he  assumed  real 
humanity,    and    is   therefore   truly  man,   the  man 
Christ  Jesus;*   yet  he  is  not,  like  the  Jewish  high- 
priest,  a  man  of  sinful  infirmities  ;y   but   is   holy, 
harmless,   undefiled,  and  separate  from   sinners* 
Hence, 

2.  In  the   matter  and  manner  of  his  offering. 
The  Jewish  high-priest  offered  beasts ;  but  Christ 
offered  himself.     And  even  the  beasts  were  com- 
paratively favored:  they  were  put  to  death  in  the 
ordinary  way ;  but  Christ,  by  crucifixion  ,r  and  though 
their  "  bodies  were  burned  without  the  camp,"  yet 
not  till  after  they  were  dead  and  their  blood  was 
carried  into  the  sanctuary ;  but  Christ,  at  the  same 
time  that  he  was  bleeding  away  his  immaculate  life, 
under  exquisite  torture  upon  the  cross,  was  also  ex- 
posed to  the  fire  of  divine  wrath  due  to  his  guilty 
people  ;  he  was  made  a  curse  for  us.* 

3.  In  the  efficacy  of  his  sacrifice.     He  needed  not, 
like  those  high-priests  who  had  infirmity,    "daily 
and  yearly"  to  offer  up  sacrifice,  first  for  his  own  sins, 
and  then  for  the  people's," — never  for  his  own  sins,  for 
he  had  none — nor  repeatedly,  to  atone  for  the  sins 
of  his  people ;  "  for  this  he  did  once,  when  he  offer- 
ed up  himself;"  having  by  this  "  one  offering  perfect- 
ed for  ever  them  that  are  sanctified"5 — them  that 


u  Col.  i.  16.  w  Heb.  iv.  14.  x  1  Tim.  ii.  5.  r  Ibid.  vii.  28. 
z  Ibid.  ver.  26.  a  Ibid.  xiii.  1 1 , 12.  Gal.  iii.  13.  b  Heb.  vii.  27.  x. 
1.  14. 

43 


324  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVl.  [SEE.  X. 

are  set  apart  in  eternal  election,  "  by  God  the  Father, 
preserved  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  called."0 

4.  In  the  sanctuary  and  tabernacle  in  which  he 
officiates.     The  Jewish  high-priest  "entered  only 
into  "  a  worldly  sanctuary,"  the  holy  places  of  which 
were  but  "  figures  of  the  true,"  and  performed  his 
service  in  a  literal  tabernacle,  which  was  only  a  type; 
but  Christ  hath  entered  into  the    true   Sanctuary, 
"heaven  itself,"  and  there  performs  his  intercessory 
office,  as  here  he  did  his  sacrificial,  in  his  appro- 
priate body,  "the  true  tabernacle,"  which,  both  in 
its  conception  and  in  its  resurrection,  "the  Lord 
pitched  and  not  man."d     The  comparative  advan- 
tages  hence   arising  to  the  church  are   obviously 
great.     For,  whereas  the  Levitical  high-priest  could 
only  represent  national  Israel  before  the  Shccheenah, 
the  symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  Christ  represents 
mystical  Israel  before  the  real  and  immediate  pre- 
sence of  God  :"e  thus  securing  to  us  acceptance  in 
Ungracious  presence  on  earth/ and  admission  to  his 
glorious  presence  in  heaven.     Christ  is  already  glo- 
rified, and  when  he  shall  appear,  his  people  shall 
appear  with  him  in  glory. ,g 

5.  In  the  dispatch  and  perfection  of  his  work. 
The  Jewish  high-priest  performed  his  work  by  de- 
grees ;  and  though,  on  the  day  of  atonement,  he  en- 
tered, at  least,  three  several  times  into  the  holy  of 
holies,   he  was   not   suffered   to   abide,    nor  even 
to  sit  down  there  ;h  but  had  to  go  out,  to  make  still 


c  Jude  Ver.  1.  dHeb.  ix.  1.  24.  viii.  2.  x.  5.  Luke  i.  35.  Acts 
xvii.  31.  •  Heb.  ix.  24.  f  Ibid.  iv.  16.  *  Col.  iii.  4.  h  Heb.  x. 
11. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    UR1M    AND    TIIUMMIM.  325 

additional  sacrifices.  But  Christ,  having  offered  up 
himself  as  an  atoning  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  his 
people,  "by  his  own  blood  entered  once  into  the 
holy  place,"  heaven  itself,  "having  obtained  eternal 
redemption  for  us;"1  and,  instead  of  having  to  go 
out  to  repeat  the  sacrifice  or  to  offer  any  additional 
ones,  he  "for  ever  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of 
God."k  And  even  on  the  sacred  day  of  expiation, 
the  high-priest,  as  an  evidence  of  the  imperfection 
and  sin  which  mingled  both  with  his  own  services 
and  with  those  of  the  people,  was  required,  in  con- 
cluding the  solemnities  of  the  occasion,  to  wash  his 
flesh  and  change  his  garments,  and  then  offer  his 
burnt-offering  and  the  burnt  offering  of  the  people, 
to  make  an  atonement  for  himself  and  for  them."1 
But,  as  there  is  no  imperfection  in  Christ,  so  not  in 
his  sacrifice;  "he  offered  himself  without  spot  to 
God  ;"m  and  though  believers,  in  the  eye  of  God's 
omniscience,  are  chargeable  with  much  imperfection 
in  worship,  and  with  many  sins  in  life,  both  of  omis- 
sion and  of  commission,  yet,  -in  the  eye  of  his  aveng- 
ing justice,  "  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son," 
once  shed,  "eleanseth  us  from  all  sin.n  Nay  more, 
the  types  being  imputatively  charged  with  sin,  and 
having  no  virtue  really  to  atone  for  it,  defiled  rather 
than  purified  those  who  touched  them.  Hence,  even 
her  that  led  away  the  scape-goat,  and  they  that  car- 
ried forth  and  burnt  the  bodies  of  the  beasts  that 
were  slain  as  sin-offerings,  were  thereby  rendered 
ceremonially  unclean,  and  had  to  wash  their  clothes 
and  bathe  themselves  in  water,  before  they  might 

i  Heb.  ix.  12,     k  Ibid.  x.  12.      »  Levit.  ,xvi.  24.      m  Heb.  ix.  14. 
n  1  John  i.  7. 


326  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  X. 

come  into  the  Jewish  camp.0  But,  on  the  contrary, 
Christ  having  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  him- 
self, all  who  are  enabled  to  lay  the  hand  of  faith  on 
HIM,  as  crucified,  risen,  and  set  forth  in  the  gospel, 
instead  of  being  defiled  thereby,  are  effectually 
cleansed;  "by  him  all  that  believe  are  justified  from 
all  things  ;"p  for,  although  "  it  is  not  possible  that  the 
blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats  should  put  away  sin  ;"q 
yet  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  vicariously  shed  for 
us,  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost  applied  to  us,  can  and 
does  "  purge  our  consciences  from  dead  works,  to 
serve  the  living  God."r 

6.  In  the  order  of  his  priesthood.  He  is  that 
"  Priest  that  should  rise  after  the  order  of  Melchiz- 
edec,  and  not  be  called  after  the  order  of  Aaron;" 
he  not  being  of  the  tribe  to  which  the  Aaronic  priest- 
hood appertained  ;  iC  for  it  is  evident  that  our  Lord 
sprang  out  of  Judah,  of  which  tribe  Moses  spake 
nothing  concerning  the  priesthood.8  Like  Melchiz- 
edec,  he  is  both  a  Priest  and  a  King  —  "  a  Priest 
upon  his  throne."1  Besides,  the  Aaronic  order  was 
abolished  with  the  Jewish  dispensation,  to  which 
only  it  was  appropriate  ;u  but  the  order  of  Melchiz- 
edec  is  perpetuated  in  the  priesthood  of  Christ, 
"who  is  a  Priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchiz- 


7.  In  the  duration  and  excellence  of  the  cove- 
nant of  which  he  is  Mediator.  The  covenant  to 
Aaron,  when  confirmed  to  Phinehas,  his  descendant 
by  Eleazar,  is  indeed  called  "the  covenant  of  an  ever- 
lasting priesthood,"  yet  not  an  everlasting  covenant  ;x 

o  Levit.  xvi.  26.  28.  P  Heb.  ix.  26.  Acts  xiii.  39.  *  Heb.  x.  4. 
r  Ibid.  ix.  14.  8  Ibid.  vii.  11.  13,  14.  l  Zech.  vi.  13.  u  Heb. 
vii.  12.  18,  19.  w  Psal.  ex.  '4.  Heb.  vii.  21.  *  Num.  xxv.  13. 


SER.    X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMMtM.  327 

and  the  Aaronic  priesthood  itself,  is  called  everlast- 
ing merely  as  it  was  originally  given  to  Aaron  and 
his  house  for  an  inheritance,  and  afterward,  upon  the 
tacit  condition  of  good  behaviour,  restricted  and  con- 
firmed to  Phinehas,  son  of  Eleazar,7  and  to  his  seed, 
throughout  all  their  generatians,  to  the  end  of  the  Mo- 
saic economy — and,'  as  it  was  a  shadow  of  the  priest- 
hood of  Christ,  which  is  incessant  and  interminable. 
The  grant  to  Aaron  suffered  no  interruption,  and 
though,  no  doubt  for  some  abuse  of  the  office  in  the  fa- 
mily of  Phinehas,  the  priesthood  was  transferred  from 
the  house  of  Eleazar,  Aaron's  third  son,  to  that  of 
Ithamar,  his  fourth  son,2  and  remained  there  from  Eli 
to  Abiathar,  inclusive, — a  lapse  of  about  120,  some 
say  150  years — yet,  in  Zadok  it  was  restored  to  the 
house  of  Eleazar,  and  continued  among  the  de- 
scendants of  Phinehas  his  son,*  until  the  cap- 
tivity, and  even  down  to  the  days  of  Herod  and 
so  to  the  times  of  the  Messiah.^  But  the  COVE- 
NANT OF  GRACE,  of  which  CHRIST  is  the  MEDI- 
ATOR, is  absolutely  everlasting.  As  the  covenantee 
of  the  elect,  He  was  "  set  up  from  everlasting"* — in 
his  love  to  their  persons,  and  in  his  covenant-engage- 
ments on  their  behalf,  his  goings  forth  have  been 
from  of  old,  from  everlasting  ;b  and  accordingly,  the 
blood  which,  in  fulfilment  of  that  ancient  compact,  he 
shed  for  them,  is  emphatically  the  blood  of  the  ever- 
lasting covenant.6  Compared,  therefore,  either  with 

*  1  Chron.  vi.  4.      z  Exo.  vi.  23.  I  Sam.  ii.  11.  27—34.  iv.  18. 
1  Chron.  xxiv.  3. 

*  Who  must  not  be  confounded  with  Phinehas  the  son  of  Eli. 
1  Sam.  ii.  34. 

t  1  Kings  ii.  35.  1  Chron.  vi.  4 — 15.  Ezra.  vii.  1 — 5.  iii.  2. 
See  also  Ludovicus  Capellus,  Chron.  Sacra.  Tab.  xiv.  and  Selden, 
de  Success,  ad  Pontiff.  L.  i.  c.  5. 

»  Prov.  viii.  23.     b  Micah  v.  2.     e  Heb.  xiii.  20. 


328  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [gER.  X. 

Moses  or  with  Aaron,  "  He  obtained  a  more  excellent 
ministry,  by  how  much  also  he  is  the  Mediator  of  a 
better  covenant,  which  was  established  upon  better 
promises"* — promises  of  better  things  than  the  earth- 
ly Canaan  and  temporal  prosperity— promises  full 
of  grace  and  of  glory ;  and  which,  being  made  to  an 
infallible  covenantee,  are  all  infallibly  absolute — 
even  "yea  and  Amen,  unto  the  glory  of  God  by 
us."6  And, 

Once  more,  In  the  peculiarity  and  perpetuity  of 
his  station.  In  Aaron's  order,  there  was  a  numerous 
and  rapid  succession — particularly  in  the  latter  part 
of  it.  "  They  truly  were  many  priests,"  mean- 
ing high-priests,  "  because,"  as  a  proof  of  their 
imperfection,  personal  and  official,  and  to  make  room 
for  the  Messiah,  "they  were  not  suffered  to  con- 
tinue by  reason  of  death  ;*  but  this  Priest,  because 

d  Heb.  viii.  6.     e  2  Cor.  i.  20. 

*  According  to  Calmet  (Diet,  under  Priest,)  there  were  eighty- 
one  Jewish  high-priests ;  and  who  may  be  arranged  as  follows. 
Under  the  tabernacle,  eleven,  beginning  with  Aaron,  Exo.  xxviii. 
1,  and  ending  with  Abiathar,  1  Sam.  xxii.  20 — 23.  and  xxiii.  9. 
Under  the  first  temple,  fifteen,  beginning  with  Zadok,  the  son  of 
Ahitub  and  father  of  Ahimaaz,  1  Chron.  vi.  8 ;  [a  different  person 
from  the  after-mentioned  Zadok,  the  father  of  Shallum  or  Me- 
shullum;  I  Chron.  vi.  12.  ix.  11.  and  Neh.  xi.  11;  the  former  was 
under  Solomon,  the  latter  under  Jotham;]  and  ending  with 
Seraiah,  (son  of  Azariah  and  father  of  Jehozadak ;  1  Chron.  vi. 
14 ;)  who  was  taken  by  Nabuzaz-adan,  and,  by  the  authority  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  put  to  death  at  Riblah.  2  Kings  xxv.  18 — 21. 
and  Jer.  lii.  24 — 27.  [Calmet,  Brown,  and  others  say  that  Zadok 
was  made  high-priest  by  Saul  and  that  he  officiated,  as  such,  in 
the  reign  of  David ;  but  they  cite  no  text  for  either,  nor  have  I 
been  able  to  find  one  to  support 'either.  I  therefore,  with  the 
Chald.  Parap.  on  1  Chron.  xviii,  16,  believe  that  Zadok,  as  well 
as  Ahimclech  or  Abimelech,  the  son  of  Abiathar,  was  only  a  sagan, 


SER.    X.]  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMM1M.  329 

he  continueth  ever,  hath  an  unchangeable  priesthood. 
Wherefore,  he  is  able  also  to  save  them  to  the 
uttermost,  that  come  unto  God  by  him,  seeing  he 
ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them."  Heb. 
vii.  23—25.* 

or  deputy  under  Jlbiathar,i\\\  Solomon  "  put  him  in  his  room.*' 
[1  Kings  ii.  27.  35.  Comp.  2  Sam.  viii.  17.  1  Chron.  xviii.  16.] 
During  the  captivity,  one,  namely  Jehozadak,  son  of  Seraiah;  that 
is,  he  was  high-priest  of  right;  but  whether  he  ever  officiated,  as 
such,  is  justly  doubted.  1  Chron.  vi.  14,  15.  And,  under  the 
second  temple  fifty-four,  beginning  with  Jeshua,  more  commonly 
called  Joshua,  (son  of  Jehozadak  called  also  Jozadak,)  who 
returned  from  the  captivity;  Ezra  ii.  1,  2.  iii.  2.  and  Zech.iii.  1 ; 
and  ending  with  Phannias,  whose  character  Josephus  represents  to 
have  been  little  better  than  brutal.  He  became  high-priest  about 
A.  D.  68,  only  two  years  before  the  temple  was  destroyed  by  the 
Romans,  and  the  Jewish  priesthood  abolished  for  ever.  See 
Josephus,  de  bello,  1.  iv.  c.  5.  and  Antiq.  1.  xx.  c.  8.  Of  the  high- 
priests  under  the  second  temple,  CaiapJias,  so  often  mentioned  in 
the  New  Testament,  was  the  forty-first.  Matt.  xxvi.  3.  57.  John 
xi.  49 — 52.  xviii.  14.  28.  Acts  iv.  6. 

*  In  reference  to  the  work  of  the  high-priest,  on  the  day  of 
atonement,  many,  no  doubt,  will  think  my  remarks  prolix,  and  in 
several  things  irrelative  to  my  subject.  Both  may  be  true.  Yet 
I  am  persuaded,  that  whoever  carefully  reads  the  sixteenth  chapter 
of  Leviticus,  will  excuse  my  efforts  (even  if  esteemed  unsuccessful) 
to  facilitate  the  understanding  of  it ;  and,  that  no  lover  of  Christ 
will  think  it  a  waste  of  time  to  read  the  instances  noticed  of  hia 
comparative  pre-eminence. 

Some  too,  following  Patrick  and  Gill,  will  pronounce  me  wrong, 
in  supposing  that  the  high-priest,  on  the  day  of  atonement,  had 
on  the  Ephod,  to  which  appertained  the  breast-plate  with  the 
Urim  and  Thummim.  But,  it  is  evident,  that  he  acted,  on  that  day, 
as  the  representative  of  Israel ;  both  when  he  offered  their  sacri- 
fice for  sin;  Levit.  xvi.  15.  33,  34;  and  when,  [for  them,  he 
entered  into  the  holy  and  most  holy  places  ;  Ver.  2.  12 — 16 ;  yet, 
that  he  might  represent  them,  he  was  required  to  have  the  breast- 
plate, with  their  names  in  it  upon  his  heart,  when  he  went  in  be- 
fore the  Lord  continually.  SeeExo.  xxviii.  21.  29,30.  Therefore, 
highly  as  I  respect  the  judgment  of  Commentators  and  Critics, 


330  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  X. 

Having  dwelt  so  long  on  the  sacerdotal  services 
appertaining  to  the  day  of  atonement,  I  shall  be  the 
more  brief  in  showing, 

Fourthly,  That  believers  realize  in  Christ,  what 
the  high-priest,  with  Urim  and  Thummim  on  his 
breast,  did  for  the  Israelites,  in  asking  divine  coun- 
sel on  their  behalf.  For, 

1.  As  none  but  the  high-priest  might  wear  the 
Ephod  with  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  so  none  but 
he  could  ask  counsel  of  God  in  this  way.  Even 
Joshua,  as  noticed  (p.  281)  had  to  stand  before 
Eleazer  the  priest,  that  he  might  ask  counsel  for  him, 
after  the  judgment  of  Urim  before  the  Lord.h  Thus 
none,  however  dignified  either  in  civil  or  religious 
life,  can  obtain  the  knowledge  of  God,  or  of  his 
will,  or  have  access  unto  him,  through  any  other 
medium  than  Christ :  no  man  knoweth  the  Son,  but 
the  Father  ;  neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father, 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom  the  Son  will  reveal  him* 

who  think  otherwise,  I  feel  bound  to  believe,  that,  on  the  day  of 
atonement,  the  high-priest  wore  the  Ephod  and  its  appendages 
over  the  linen  garments  ;  Ver.  4 ;  as,  on  other  days,  he  wore  them 
over  different  garments,  while  officially  employed.  The  typical 
design  of  his  work  required  it.  For,  the  holy  linen  garments,  in 
which,  as  the  representative  of  national  Israel,  he  officiated  on 
the  day  of  atonement,  and  which  he  left  in  the  tabernacle  of  the 
congregation  ;  Ver.  23 ;  fitly  typified  the  holy  and  innocent  human 
nature  of  Christ,  in  which,  as  the  Representative  of  mystical 
Israel,  he  was  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross ; 
Philip,  ii.  8 ;  and  which,  for  a  time,  he  left  in  Joseph's  tomb ; 
Matt,  xxvii.  57 — 60 ;  also  his  perfect  righteousness,  as  Mediator, 
which  he  Jinished  in  his  death  ;  John  xix.  30 ;  and  which  he  left 
for  his  church,  (mystically  the  congregation  of  Israel,}  to  whom, 
in  the  eternal  council,  it  was  granted,  that  she  should  be  arrayed  in 
fine  linen>  clean  and  white  ;  for  the  jine  linen  is  the  righteousness  of 
the  saints.  Rev.  xix.  8. 

h  Nnm.  xxvii.  21.      '  Matt.  xi.  27. 


SER.  X.'J  HIS    URIM    AND    THUMIVIIM,  331 

No  man,  saith  Christ,  cometh  unto  the  Father,  but  by 


me* 


2.  As  the  high-priest,  by  means  of    Urim  and 
Thummim,  asked  divine  counsel  only  for  God's  Israel, 
or,   on  their  behalf,   for  their  kings,  or   for  their 
house  of  judgment ;  so  Christ  acts  as  a  Counsel- 
lor and  Intercessor,  not  for  mankind  in  common,  but 
for  those  whom  the  Father  hath  given  him1 — those 
for  whom  He  laid  down  his  life™ — those  whom,  as 
called,  He  makes  kings  and  priests  unto  God?  and, 
as  baptized,  admits  into  the  gospel-church  ;°  which, 
under  the  New  Testament,  is  the  House  of  Judg- 
ment?    "  I  pray  for  them,"  said  He  to  the  Father ; 
adding,  "  I  pray  not  for  the  world,  but  for  them 
which  thou  hast  given  me."q 

3.  The  high-priest,  by  Urim  and  Thummim,  ask- 
ed divine  counsel  only  in  relation  to  matters  of  great 
importance — matters  in  which  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  welfare  of  Israel  were  greatly  concerned.     And 
such,  pre-eminently,  are  the  matters  to  which  the 
intercessions  of  Christ  relate.     As,  for  instance,  the 
effectual  calling  of  his  redeemed :    Ask  of  me,  said 
the  Father  to  him,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen 

for  thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth  for  thy  possession.* — The  comfort  and  in- 
struction of  believers :  /  will  pray  the  Father,  said 
Christ  to  his  disciples,  and  he  shall  give  you  another 
Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  for  ever;  even 
the  Spirit  of  truth,  $fc.B — That  they  may  be  kept  from 
the  evil  that  is  in  the  world,  and  be  sanctified  through 
the  truth.1 — That  their  faith  fail  not.u — And,  that 
ultimately  they  may  be  with  him  in  heaven  to  behold 
his  glory.™  Moreover, 

,  Johnvi.  39.     m  Ibid.  x.  15.     nRev.  i.  6.    °Acts  ii.  41.    PMatt. 

iviii.  15—17.     1  Cor.  vi.  1—5.     iJohn  xvii.  9.  20.    *  Psal.  ii.  8. 

John  xiv.  16, 17.  l  Ib.  xvii.  15.  17.  "Lukexxiii.  32.  w  John  xvii.  24. 

44 


THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [sfiR.    X 

4.  As  the  responses  which  God,  by  Urim  and 
Thummim,  returned  to  Israel,  were  never,  like  those 
returned  to  the  heathen  by  the  lying  oracles  of  Sa- 
tan, equivocal  and  false,  but  always  explicit  and  true ; 
so  are  all  the  answers  which  He  returns  to  believers 
through  Christ,  who  knoweih  all  things,*  and  who  is 
the  faithful  witness.1 

From  our  subject,  we  learn, 

1.  The  obligations  which  all  the  race  of  Adam 
are  under  to  Christ,  for  their  various  kinds  and  de- 
grees of  light.  The  natural  sun  in  the  heavens, 
and  the  rational  soul  in  man,  are  both  among  the 
all  things  created  by  himu  From  him  are  all  divine 
communications:  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apos- 
tles, were  only  organs  of  utterance ;  the  oracle  was 
Christ  speaking  by  his  Spirit  in  them.w  Hence,  the 
solar  rays  and  the  light  of  reason,  common  to  man- 
kind— the  light  of  revelation,  wherever  granted,  and 
the  light  of  grace,  to  whomsoever  given,  are  alike 
from  HIM,  with  whom  are  the  URIM,  that  is,  lights. 
All  effectual  knowledge  of  the  divine  perfections, 
which  the  saints  on  earth  enjoy,  they  receive  by  the 
internal  light  of  the  Spirit,  enabling  them,  by  the 
external  light  of  revelation,  to  behold  the  face  of 
HIM,  who  is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory,  and 
the  express  image  of  his  person  :x  "  For  God,"  saith 
an  apostle,  "  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out 
of  darkness,  hath  shined  into  our  hearts,"  (riot,  as 
some  think,  to  stir  up  a  latent  light  supposed  to  be 
in  all  by  nature,  but)  "  to  GIVE  the  light  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face,  the  manifes- 
tation, of  Jesus  Christ."7  Let  us  then,  my  believ- 
ing hearers,  in  all  our  times  of  darkness  and  sad- 
John  xxi.  17.  '  Rev.  i.  5.  »  John  i.  3.  Col.  i.  16.  w  1  Pet. 
i.  11.  x  Heb.  i.  3.  corap.  John  xiv.  3.  y  2  Cor.  iv.  6. 


SER.  X.]  HIS    URIJVI    AND    THUMMIM.  833 

ness,  look  to  Christ  for  light — the  light  of  instruc- 
tion and  the  light  of  comfort ;  remembering  that  he 
hath  said,  /  am  come  a  light  into  the  world,  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  me,  should  not  abide  in  dark- 
ness.2 Moreover,  the  light  of  that  ultimate  and  eter- 
nal glory,  which  the  saints  shall  enjoy  in  heaven, 
will  emanate  from  Christ ;  it  will  be  his  glory  that 
shall  be  revealed  in  us ;  and  by  which  we  shall  be 
like  him,  and  so  appear  with  him  in  glory*  What 
manner  of  persons,  then,  ought  we  to  be  in  all  holy 
conversation  and  godliness  /b 

2.  The  blessedness  of  all  true  believers.     They 
are  experimentally  as  well  as   federally  in  Christ, 
with  whom  are  also  the  THUMMIM,  perfections.  United 
to  him,  they  have  all  the  perfections  of  the  divine  na- 
ture engaged  and  employed  for  their  safety,  temporal 
and   eternal.     In  him,  however  destitute  in  them- 
selves, they  are  blessed  with  all  spiritual  blessings9 
and,  therefore,  with  all  requisit  grace  and  gifts — 
with  the  irreversible    pardon   of  all    their    sins — 
with  a  perfect  and  everlastingly  justifying  righteous- 
ness— with   a  perfection  of  new-covenant  promises 
— and,  to  crown  all,  with  an  irrevocable  title  to  eter- 
nal life.     See  pp.  299 — 303.  Besides,  under  his  dis- 
pensation, the  church  is  blessed  with  a  perfection 
of  gospel  doctrines,  ordinances  and  discipline  ;  and, 
therefore,  is  neither  required  nor  allowed,  either  to 
borrow  from  abolished  ceremonies,  or  to  adopt  from 
human  traditions.*    In  a  word,  believers,   Ye  are 
complete  in  him.A 

3.  To  whom  we,  who  through  grace  have  believed, 
should  commit  our  cause,  when  disputed  by  Satan, 
by  legalists,  by  sensualists,  or  by  unbelief;  namely, 

z  John  xii.  46.     aRom.  viii.  17, 18.  29.  1  John  iii.  2.  Col.  iii.  4. 
*2 Pet.  iii.  11.    c Col.  ii.  16—22.      d  Ibid.  ver.  10. 


334  THE    BLESSING    OP   LEVI.  [sER.  X. 

to  him,  who  is  our  Advocate  and  Counsellor,  even 
JESUS  CHRIST  THE  RIGHTEOUS,  whose  propitiatory 
sacrifice  offered  for  our  sins,  is,  on  our  behalf,  an 
ever-availing  plea  before  the  throne.  In  his  name, 
therefore,  let  us  believingly  and  hopefully  present  all 
our  petitions — with  him,  let  us  leave  all  our  cares, 
knowing  that  he  carethfor  us — and,  to  him,  let  us  bring 
all  our  hard  questions,  assured  that  his  understanding 
is  infinite — that  he  has  interest  enough  in  heaven  to 
obtain  whatever  is  best  for  us,  and  that,  to  us,  as  to 
his  disciples  of  old,  he  is  saying,  Whatsoever  ye  shall 
ask  the  Father  in  my  name,  he  will  give  it  you* 

4.  The  deplorable  darkness  and  wretchedness  of 
the  unbelieving  Jews  ;  the  true  Urim  and  Thummim 
being  no  longer  with  Levi,  but  with  CHRIST,  whom 
they  reject  and  blaspheme !  Nor  is  the  condition 
of  unbelieving  gentiles,  who  neglect  and  despise 
him,  any  better.  Let  both  therefore,  consider  that 
fearful  admonition  which  the  apostle  addressed  to 
such  at  Antioch :  Beware — lest  that  come  upon  you 
which  is  spoken  of  in  the  prophets,  Behold  ye  des- 
pisers,  and  wonder,  and  perish.{  And, 

Finally,  The  great  superiority  of  the  evangelical 
dispensation  compared  with  the  legal.  The  law  made 
nothing  perfect,  but  the  bringing  in  of  a  better  hope 
did.g  The  law  had  indeed  a  shadow  of  good  things 
to  come*  but,  in  the  gospel,  these  good  things,  even 
life  and  immortality  are  brought  to  light.1  Under 
the  former,  Christ  was  vailed  in  ceremonies,  but  un- 
der the  latter,  he  is  evidently  set  forth*  Therefore, 
even  that  ichich  was  made  glorious,  had  no  glory  in 
this  respect,  by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excelleth.* 

8  John  xvi.  23.  1  Pet.  v.  7.  Comp.  1  Kings  x.  1.  &c.  f  Acts  xiii. 
40,  41.  Hab.  i.  5.  Job  xxxvi.  18.  Mark  xvi.  16.  *Heb.  vii.  19. 
hlbid.x.l.  ^Tim.i.lO.  k2Cor.iii.  14.  Gal.iii.  1.  !2  Cor.iii.10. 


SERMON  XL 

THE  BLESSING  OF  LEVI. 
HIS    DEPORTMENT  AND  SERVICE, 


DEUT.  xxx.  8 — 11. — And  of  Levi  ht  said,  Let  thy  Tkummim 
and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  whom  thou  didst  prove  at 
Massah,  and  with  whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Mcri- 
bah  ;  who  said  unto  his  father  and  to  his  mother,  I  have  not  sein 
him  ;  neither  did  he  acknowledge  his  brethren,  nor  knew  his  own 
children:  for  they  have  observed  thy  word,  and  kept  thy  covenant. 
They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy  judgments,  and  Israel  thy  law  :  they 
shall  put  incense  before  thee,  and  whole  burnt-sacrifice  upon  thine 
altar.  Bless,  LORD,  his  substance,  and  accept  the  work  of  his 
hands :  smite  through  the  loins  of  them  that  rise  against  him,  and 
of  them  that  hate  him,  that  they  rise  not  again. 


IN  blessing  the  tribe  of  Levi,  Moses  is  ample  and 
diffuse ;  not,  however,  because  he  was  of  that  tribe, 
and,  as  such,  ambitious  to  aggrandize  himself;  for, 
of  his  relation  thereto  he  takes  no  notice,  nor  had 
he  any  control  over  the  Spirit  of  prophecy ;  but  speak- 
ing as  he  was  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  thus  dis- 
tinguished the  tribe  which  God  delighted  to  honor. 

The  Urim  and  Thummim,  with  the  prophetic 
prayer  respecting  them,  being  already  considered, 
your  attention  is  now  invited  to  the  next  part  of  Levi 's 
blessing,  and  which  is  expressed  in  the  words  fol- 
lowing :  Who  said  unto  his  fatJier  and  to  his  mo- 
ther, I  have  not  seen  him ;  neither  did  he  acknowledge 
his  brethren,  nor  knew  his  own  children :  for  they 
observed  thy  word>  and  kept  thy  covenant. 
45 


336  THE   BLESSING  OF   LEVI.  [gER.  XI. 

They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy  judgments,  and  Israel 
thy  law:  they  shall  put  incense  before  thee,  and 
whole  burnt- sacrifice  upon  thine  altar. 

These  words  respect,  partly  the  high-priest,  partly 
the  inferior  priests,  and  partly  the  common  Levites  ; 
and  describe  both 

Their  deportment,  and 

Their  work. 

1.  Their  deportment.  This  was  strictly  impar- 
tial :  who  said  unto  his  father  and  to  his  mother,  I 
have  not  seen  him,  neither  did  he  acknowledge  his 
brethren,  nor  knew  his  own  children,  fyc* 

Thus,  in  effect,  the  high-priest  emphatically  said 
and  did,  in  discharging  some  of  his  official  duties: 
yet,  not  from  any  want  of  filial,  fraternal,  or  parental 
affection,  but  in  obedience  to  a  positive  divine  in- 
junction.— For  the  Lord,  speaking  by  Moses,  said, 
"  He  that  is  the  high-priest  among  his  brethren,  up- 
on whose  head  the  anointing  oil  was  poured,  and 
that  is  consecrated  to  put  on  the  garments,"  those 
peculiar  to  his  station,  "  shall  not,"  as  might  a  com- 

*  The  literal  obscurity  in  the  former  part  of  this  declaration,  is 
occasioned  by  a  wrong  version  of  the  prefix  h  lamed ;  which, 
thouuh  most  frequently  used  as  the  sign  of  the  dative  case,  is 
used  here  to  form  the  genitive  preposition ;  and  which,  therefore! 
instead  of  being  rendered  unto,  as  before  his  father,  and  to,  as  be- 
fore his  mother,  should,  in  both  instances,  be  rendered  of,  or  con- 
ccrning,or  about.  See  Ling.  Sacra,  Vol.  1,  p.  142.  This  parti- 
cle being  so  rendered,  the  words,  rid  of  that  obscurity,  read  thus : 
"  who  said  0/his  father  and  of  his  mother,  I  have  not  seen  him," 
or  her,  as  the  ease  might  be ;  that  is,  I  have  not  become  defiled  by 
going  in  to  see  any  dead  body,  not  even  that  of  my  father  or 
mother,  but  have,  in  this  respect,  treated  parents,  brethren  and 
children  as  if  strangers.  So  this  particle  is  rendered  in  Gen.  xx. 
13.  "  say  of  me,  He  is  my  brother ;"  and  in  Chap.  xxvi.  7.  "  the 
men  of  the  place  asked  him  of  his  wife. 


SER.  XI.]     HIS   DEPORTMENT    AND    SERVICE.  337 

mon  Israelite,  or,  in  certain  cases,  an  ordinary  priest, 
"  uncover  his  head,  nor  rend  his  clothes,"  that  is,  in 
token  of  mourning  at  the  death  or  at  the  funerals  of 
his  nearest  relations.  "Neither"  (so  strict  was  the 
injunction)  "shall  he  go  in  to  any  dead  body,"  that 
is,  into  an  apartment  where  any  dead  body  lay, 
"  nor  defile  himself,"  by  so  doing,  "  for  his  father 
or  his  mother,"  when  lying  dead ;  and  therefore 
much  less  for  one  of  his  brethren,  one  of  his  own 
nation,  or  tribe,  or  even  one  descended  from  the 
same  parents ;  nor  might  he,  in  this  way,  know  his 
own  children.  Moreover,  to  complete  the  divine  re- 
strictions under  which,  in  these  respects,  the  high- 
priest  was  laid,  and  withal  to  suggest  the  reasons  of 
them,  it  was  added,  "  Neither  shall  he  go  out  of  the 
sanctuary,"  that  is,  out  of  the  tabernacle  or  temple, 
while  bis  attendance  there  was  required — no,  not 
even  to  pay  his  last  respects  to  a  dying  parent,  or  to 
see  the  corpse,  or  attend  its  interment;  "nor  pro- 
fane the  sanctuary  of  his  God,"  by  returning  thither 
before  purified,  after  having  touched  a  dead  body,  or 
even  a  grave,  by  which  a  man  was  rendered  cere- 
monially unclean,  and  so  unfit  to  enter  the  sanctuary, 
for  seven  days.  See  Levit.  xxi.  10 — 12.  Comp.  Chap. 
x.  7.  and  Num.  xix.  11 — 14. 

For  an  obvious  reason,  there  was  a  difference 
made  in  the  law  between  the  high-priest  and  ordinary 
ones,  in  regard  to  mourning  for  the  dead,  &c.  To  an 
ordinary  priest,  it  was  permitted  to  attend  the  funeral 
of  one  near  of  kin  to  him ;  because,  though  he  thereby 
became  defiled,  (Levit.  xxi.  2,  3.)  his  place,  during  his 
defilement,  might  be  supplied  by  another  priest  who 
was  clean,  or  even  by  a  clean  Levite ;  2  Cor.  xxix. 


. 


338  THE   BLESSING   OF  LEVI.  [sER.    XI* 

34 ;  but,  to  the  high-priest,  this  was  not  permitted, 
because  in  the  event  of  his  becoming  ceremonially 
defiled,  there  was  no  substitute — the  service  of  the 
sanctuary  must  be  suspended,  till  he  was  purified, 
or  till  another  was  consecrated.* 

The  ordinary  priests,  however,  were  likewise  re- 
quired to  observe  the  strictest  impartiality  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  official  duties  ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
examination  of  witnesses  ;  Deut.  xix*  15 — 21 ;  in 
the  trial  of  a  suspected  wife,  by  the  waters  of  jealousy ; 
Num.  v.  11 — 31;  and  in  all  cases  of  ceremonial 
uncleanness,  in  regard  to  which  they  were  required, 
without  partiality,  to  separate  between  the  clean 
and  the  unclean  among  the  children  of  Israel.  See 
Levit.  xv.  31. 

But  the  testimony  given  in  the  text,  concerning  the 
fidelity  and  impartiality  of  Levi,  seems  to  respect  the 
tribe  in  common,  and  was  often  very  remarkably  veri- 
fied in  them ;  for  in  the  execution  of  judgment  upon 
bold  offenders,  they  knew  neither  parent,  brother,  nor 
child.  When  "  there  went  out  a  fire  from  the  Lord" 
and  slew  Nadab  and  Abihu,  for  their  unauthorized 
offering,  Aaron  their  father  held  his  peace,  he  did  not 
murmur,  nor  was  he  allowed  to  mourn;  Levit.  x. 
1 — 6  ;  when  Phinehas  beheld  a  brother-Israelite  in 
crime,  he  thrust  him  through  with  a  Javelin  ;  Num. 

*  Hence,  to  provide  the  more  effectually  against  so  unhappy  an 
occurrence,  this  distinguished  officer  of  the  sanctuary,  had,  within 
the  sacred  precincts,  a  small  but  commodious  house,  called  Lisck- 
catli  cohen  gadol,  the  parlor  of  the  high-priest.  In  this  he  spent 
the  intervals  between  the  times  of  his  official  services,  and  so  re- 
mained all  day  within  the  consecrated  inclosure.  At  night  he  went 
to  his  own  dwelling-house,  and  nowhere  else,  and  which,  after  the 
erection  of  the  temple,  was  always  in  Jerusalem.  So  Cunseus 
(out  of  Mass.  Midoth,  Lib.  ii.)  De  Repub.  Hebr.  Cap.  iii. 


SER.  XI.]       HIS   DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  339 

xxv.  7,  8  ;  and  the  sons  of  Korah,  who  were  Levites, 
(Exo.  vi.  19 — >-21.)  refused  to  join  in  the  gainsaying 
of  their  wicked  father,  and  so  perished  not  withfo'ra, 
Dathan  and  Abiram,  when  the  earth  opened  her 
mouth  and  swallowed  them  up,"  nor  when  "the  fire  de- 
voured" his  company  of  "  two  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
and  they  became  a  sign,"  an  example,  to  deter 
others  from  a  like  offense  : — the  children  of  Korah 
died  not* 

Chiefly,  however,  the  Levites  exemplified  the 
character  given  of  them  in  the  text,  in  the  execu- 
tion of  judgment  upon  the  worshipers  of  the  golden 
calf:  "  Then  Moses  stood  in  the  gates  of  the  camp, 
and  said,  Who  is  on  the  LORD'S  side  1  let  him  come 
unto  me.  And  all  the  sons  of  Levi  gathered  them- 
selves together  unto  him."  In  thus  siding  with  Mo- 
ses, they  sided  with  the  LORD.  "  And  he"  (Moses) 
"  said  unto  them,  Thus  saith  the  LORD  GOD  of  Israel, 
Put  every  man  his  sword  by  his  side,  and  go  in  and 
out  from  gate  to  gate  throughout  the  camp,  and  slay 
every  man  his  brother,  and  every  man  his  companion, 
and  every  man  his  neighbor."  Nor  did  they  hesi- 
tate to  execute  the  fearful  injunction.  For,  "the 
children  of  Levi  did  according  to  the  word  of  Moses," 
it  being  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  :  "  and 
there  fell  of  the  people  that  day  about  three  thou- 
sand men."b 

The  Levites,  in  performing  these  acts  of  seeming 
cruelty,  might  appear  more  like  ferocious  barbarians, 
than  like  the  ministers  of  righteousness ;  neverthe- 
less, they  herein  complied  with  the  revealed  will  of 

»  Num.  xxvi.  9—11.  Comp.  Chap.  xvi.  16 — 40.  and  Jude,  ver. 
11.  bExo.  xxxii.  26— 29. 


340  THE   BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [sER.  XI. 

God ;  to  whom  Moses,  in  the  text,  bears  this  farther 
testimony  concerning  them:  "They  have  observed  thy 
word  and  kept  thy  covenant ;"  they  observed  his 
word  of  command,  and  kept  his  covenant  delivered 
to  Israel  at  Sinai ;  and  especially  that  part  of  it 
which  forbad  idolatry.0  Hence,  in  consideration  of 
these  acts,  God  confirmed  to  this  tribe  the  covenant, 
or  promise,  of  the  priesthood ;  saying  of  Phinehas, 
11  Behold  I  give  unto  him  my  covenant  of  peace,  and 
he  shall  have  it  and  his  seed  after  him,  even  the 
covenant  of  an  everlasting  priesthood" — d  called  ever- 
lasting, because  it  was  to  continue  as  long  as  the 
legal  dispensation,  and  was  a  type  of  that  priesthood 
which  is  absolutely  everlasting.* 

The  Levitcs,  in  the  character  given  of  them  in  this 
part  of  our  subject,  were  variously  typical. 

First,  they  were  typical  of  CHRIST,  and  particu- 
larly in  the  person  of  the  high-priest. 

As  the  high-priest,  according  to  the  obligations 
he  was  under,  might  not  leave  the  service  of  God, 
out  of  affection  or  respect,  even  for  his  father  or 
mother ;  so  Christ,  being  bound  by  covenant-stipu- 
lation, could  not,  and  did  not  neglect  the  work  as- 
signed to  him  by  his  heavenly  F'ather,  even  whesi 
respect  to  the  anxieties  and  wishes  of  his  nearest 
fleshly  connections  seemed  to  require  it.  Of  this 
he  gave  a  remarkable  instance  at  the  age  of  twelve 
years,  when  his  mother  Jfar^and  his  reputed  father 
Joseph,  after  having  anxiously  sought  him  for  three 
days,  found  him  in  the  temple,  sitting  in  the  midst 
of  the  doctors,  both  hearing  them  and  asking  them 

e  Exo.  xix.  5 — 8.  and  xx.  5.   d  Num.  xxv.  12,  13. 
*  Heb.  vii.  21—24.  SeeSer.  x.  p.  327. 


SER.  XI.]      HIS  DEPORTMENT    A#D    SERVICE.  341 

questions ;  for,  when  his  mother  said  unto  him,  Son 
why  hast  thou  thus  dealt  with  us  ?  behold  thy  father 
and  I  have  sought  thee  sorrowing — he,  designing  to 
give  a  thus  early  intimation  of  his  divine  Sonship 
and  mission,  merely  replied,  How  is  it  that  ye 
sought  me  ?  wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my 
Father's  business  1C  The  same  course  he  also  ob- 
served after  he  had  entered  upon  his  public  minis- 
try ;  for  when,  at  a  certain  time  while  he  was 
preaching,  one  said  unto  him,  Behold  thy  mother 
and  thy  brethren  stand  without  desiring  to  speak 
with  thce,  he  would  not  suspend  his  labor  to  gratify 
their  request ;  but,  happilyaturning  the  occurrence  in- 
to a  lesson  of  instruction,  took  occasion  therefrom,  to 
show  that  fleshy  relation  to  him  was  comparatively 
of  little  account.  Who,  said  he,  is  my  mother  ?  and 
who  are  my  brethren?  Thus  speaking,  he  might 
design  to  intimate,  that  by  nature  they  were  no  bet- 
ter than  others,  and  that,  without  faith  in  him  as  the 
Messiah,  they  must  perish  as  well  as  others.  Or  he 
might  put  these  questions  merely  to  excite  attention ; 
intending  to  show,  as  he  preceded  to  do,  that  he  es- 
teemed those  as  the  nearest  of  kin  to  him,  who  had  re- 
ceived of  his  Spirit — had  believed  in  him — and,  as  an 
evidence  of  it,  were  observant  of  his  Father's  revealed 
will—that  such,  in  a  word,  he  regarded  as  allied  to  him- 
self, by  every  endearing  relation  :  "  And  he  stretched 
forth  his  hand  toward  his  disciples  and  said,  Behold 
my  mother  and  my  brethren !  For  whosoever  shall 
do  the  will  of  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  the  same 
is  my  br other ,  and  sister,  and  mother. rf  Let  be- 
lievers hence  learn,  that  the  church  of  Christ,  and 

•  Luke  ii.  41—52.  f  Matth.  xii.  46—50. 


342  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.    XI. 

his  members  individually,  ought  to  be  dearer  to  them 
than  even  a  natural  mother,  or  mere  natural  brothers 
and  sisters,  or  fleshly  relations  in  any  degree.  And,  if 
thus  united  and  interested  in  Zion,  our  hearts  are  de- 
voutly set  upon  seeking  her  good  :  the  resolution  of 
each  thus  affected,  is  well  expressed  in  the  following 
lines  — 

"  My  soul  shall  pray  for  Zion  still, 

While  life  or  breath  remains  ; 
There  my  best  friends  and  kindred  dwell, 

There  God  my  Saviour  reigns." 

Were  the  levitical  priests,  without  respect  of 
persons,  to  pronounce  individuals  clean  or  un- 
clean according  to  law  and  fact,g—  to  determine  causes 
according  to  evidence,  the  witnesses  being  duly  ex- 
amined,11 —  and,  to  execute  judgment  upon  presumptu- 
ous offenders  without  partiality  I1  —  the  same  is  mani- 
fest in  the  procedure  of  Christ.  In  his  doctrine,  he 
separates  between  believers  and  unbelievers,  without 
any  respect  to  national  or  civil  distinction  ;  pronounc- 
ing the  former  clean*  and  the  latter  in  their 
sins;1  the  former,  saved,™  and  the  latter  condemned 
already11  —  nay,  dying  so,  lost  inevitably  and  for  ever.0 
In  his  discipline  he  has  provided  that  causes  shall 
be  decided  according  to  evidence  ;  requiring  that 
every  word  or  charge  shall  be  established  by  two  or 
three  witnesses.*  And,  in  the  execution  of  Judg- 
ment upon  obdurate  rebels,  he  observes  justice  with- 
out connivance  or  partiality.  The  Jews  themselves, 
for  instance,  though  his  own  nation,  when  the  day 


?  Levit.  xv.  31.  hDeut.  xix.  15.  ifixo.  xxxii.  27.  kJohn  xv.  3» 
1  Ibid  viii.  24.  m  Luke  vii.  50.  John  v.  34.  n  Ibid  iii.  18,  °  Ver.  36. 
PMath:xviii;l5—  17, 


SER.  XI.]       HIS  DEPORTMENT  AND  SERVICE.  343 

of  their  judicial  visitation  arrived,  received  no  favor 
at  his  hand  :  for  wrath  is  come  upon  them  to  the 
uttermost.*  Can  it  then  be  doubted,  that  pur- 
suant to  the  divine  decree,  he  will  execute  the  threat- 
ened vengeance  upon  mystery  babylon,  including 
the  beast  and  the  false  prophet?*  Or,  that  at  the 
appointed  day,  he  will  say  to  the  finally  impeni- 
tent, Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire, 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels  ?  Matt.  xxv. 
46.  Comp.  John  v.  28,  29.* 

Did  the  levitical  priests,  moreover,  in  rightly  per- 
forming their  work,  observe  the  word  and  keep  the 
covenant  of  God  ?  How  much  more  perfectly  did 
Christ,  as  Mediator,  observe  the  word  of  God  the 
Father,  and  keep  the  covenant  into  which  he  had 
entered  with  him,  as  the  covenaiitee  of  the  elect !  / 
came  down  from  heaven,  said  Christ,  not  to  do  mine 
own  will  separately,  but,  in  concurrence  therewith, 
the  will  of  him  that  sent  me  ;K  I  do  always,  said  he, 
those  ihings  that  please  him1 — and  to  which  the 
Father  himself  bare  record,  saying,  This  is  my  be- 
loved Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.11  And,  as  up- 
on the  zeal  manifested  by  Phinehas,  God,  by  Moses, 
confirmed  to  him  the  covenant  of  the  Aaronic  priest- 
hood, so  when  Christ  had  manifested  his  meditator- 
ial  zeal,  not  by  executing  vengeance  upon  trans- 
gressors, but  by  magnifying  the  law  and  putting 
away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself,  God,  by  Paul, 
renewed  and  confirmed  to  him  the  declaration,  Thou 

<U  Thess.  ii.  16.    r  Rev.  xvii.  1.  xviii.  21.  xix.  20. 
*  On  the  word  everlasting  see  Ser.  ii.  page  71,  and  Ser.  v.  p.  182, 
note. 

•John  vi.  38.Mbid  viii.  29.  "Matt.  iii.  17. 
46 


344  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  XI. 

art  a  priest  for  ever,  after  the  order  of  Melchis- 
idec.™ 

Secondly,  The  Levites,  in  the  character  here  given 
of  them,  were  in  some  respects,  typical  of  Christ's 
ministers. 

These,  like  the  Levites,  and  in  imitation  of  their 
blessed  Master,  must  not  neglect  the  work  of  the 
ministry  out  of  respect  to  the  persons  or  wishes  of 
their  nearest  relations  or  dearest  friends.  When 
one  whom  Christ  had  called  to  this  work,  begged 
leave  only  to  go  first  and  bury  his  father,  (i  Jesus 
said  unto  him,  Let  the  dead  lury  their  dead, 
but  go  thou  and  preach  the  kingdom  of  God"* 

wHeb.  vii.  21.  Comp.  Psal.  ex.  4. 

*  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead]  This  singular  injunction,  seems 
to  imply,  that  the  father  of  the  man  addressed  had  died  in  a  carnal 
state — that  he  had  relations  and  friends  enough  in  the  same  state, 
to  take  the  charge  of  his  interment — and  therefore,  that  this  man, 
whom  Christ  had  called  by  his  grace,  and  called  to  preach  the  gos^ 
pel,  and  whom,  moreover,  at  that  particular  time,  and  probably  on 
some  special  occasion,  he  required  to  follow  him,  was,  by  this  in^ 
junction,  excused  even  from  attending  his  father's  funeral;  to 
attend  which,  under  different  circumstances,  would  have  been,  not 
only  his  lawful  privilege  but  his  filial  and  bounden  duty.  Extra- 
ordinary commands,  however,  are  not  to  be  plead  as  general  rules* 
See  Gen.  xxii.  2.  and  Matt.  xix.  21.  Nevertheless,  *t  may  hence 
be  inferred,  that  the  ministers  of  Christ,  having  the  everlasting  gos* 
pel  to  preach  to  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth,  (Rev.  xiv<  6.)  are  jus- 
tifiable in  omitting,  not  only  many  civilities,  which  from  other  men 
are  due  to  society,  but  also  some  relative  duties,  the  omission  of 
which  would  in  others  be  reprehensible. 

This  strange  injunction  suggests  also  another  thought.  The 
deceased  might  have  been  not  only  a  man  of  the  world  but  rich  ; 
and,  if  so,  there  were  many  who  esteemed  it  an  honor  to  attend 
his  funeral.  The  rich  man  died  and  was  buried,  no  doubt,  with 
great  pomp  and  followed  by  a  long  and  splendid  procession.  Luke 


SER.  XI.J      HIS  DEPORTMENT   AND   SERVICE.  345 

And  when  "  another"  who,  it  should  seem,  had  already 
engaged  in  the  work,  said  "  Lord  I  will  follow  thee  ; 
but  let  me  first  go  bid  them  farewell  who  are  at  my 
house,"  even  this  was  denied  :  "  Jesus  said  unto 
him,  No  man  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough, 
and  looking  back,  is  jit  for  the  kingdom  of  God* 
Truly  the  king's  business  requireth  haste.  1  Sam. 
xxi.  8. 

To  gospel-ministers,  even  worldly  conveniencies 
and  domestic  comforts,  however  desirable,  may 
prove  impediments ;  they  may  occasion  interruptions 
in  their  studies,  and  thereby  diminish  their  heavenly 
mindedness  and  official  usefulness.  May  not  this 
be  the  principal  reason  why  it  is  so  ordered  in  the 
providence  of  God,  that  so  many  of  Christ's  minjs- 

xvi.  22.  Hence,  let  Christians  in  common,  and  especially  gospel- 
ministers,  learn  that,  however  lawful  to  them,  they  are  under  no 
special  obligation  to  attend  the  funerals  of  the  rich  and  great  of 
the  world ;  there  being  always  enough  ready  to  seek  this  honor ; 
and  that  rather  it  becomes  them  to  be  careful  to  attend  the  funerals 
of  the  poor,  and  especially  of  the  poor  saints,  who,  in  death  as  well 
as  during  life,  are,  in  many  instances,  shamefully  neglected.  The 
righteous  perisheth,  and  no  man  layeth  it  to  heart.  Is.  Ivii.  1. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  said,  that  the  assemblage  at  the  funeral  of  a 
distinguished  worldling,  is  usually  of  such  character  as  renders  it  the 
more  desirable  that  a  gospel  minister  should  be  there  to  preach  to 
them.  Granted :  but  how  rarely,  on  such  an  occasion,  is  the  oppor* 
tunity  for  it  given !  How  often  does  it  happen,  that,  at  such  a  fu-» 
neral,  though  many  ministers  are  collected,  not  one  is  asked  to  open 
his  mouth  either  to  God  or  to  the  people ;  and,  unasked,  no  one 
ventures  to  officiate,  lest  he  should  be  thought  to  offend  against  the 
yules  of  fashionable  etiquette !  Not  so  at  the  funerals  of  the  saints 
whether  rich  or  poor,  and  especially  the  latter.  Here  no  such  re- 
straints are  imposed ;  on  such  an  occasion,  a  minister,  even  linh 
solicited,  feels  at  liberty  to  speak  a  word  in  season, 
?  Luke  fc.  59—62. 


346  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  XI 

ters  have  fewer  attractions  and  more  crosses  in  their 
families,  than  other  men  ?  and  why,  in  so  many  in- 
stances, they  are  called  to  suffer  more  than  private 
Christians,  from  the  deception,  intrigue  and  perfidy 
of  professed  friends  ?  Their  experience,  in  these  re- 
spects, though  .extremely  afflicting,  is  often  over- 
ruled for  their  own  and  Zion's  good.  A  minister 
thus  circumstanced,  finds  his  affections  and  his 
confidence  the  more  withdrawn  from  all  creatures, 
and  in  regard  both  to  his  comforts  and  his  useful- 
ness, is  enabled  the  more  cordially  to  say,  Now, 
LORD,  what  wait  I  for?  my  hope  is  in  thee.y 

Nor  must  a  minister  of  Christ,  from  the  love  of  lucre 
or  of  ease,  involve  himself  in  secular  pursuits,  to  the 
neglect  of  his  sanctuary  labors  or  preparatory  studies  : 
No  man  that  warreth,  entangleth  himself  with  the 
affairs  of  this  life  ;  that  he  may  please  him  who  hath 
chosen  him  to  be  a  soldier.  z  How  many  ministers, 
alas  !  have  become  entangled  in  mercantile  and  civil 
avocations!  Those  who  have  become  thus  entan- 
gled to  gratify  a  thirst  for  wealth  or  worldly  distinc- 
tion, are  verily  and  highly  censurable  ;  but  many,  it 
must  be  admitted,  have  been  driven  to  it  of  necessi- 
ty ;  the  churches  they  have  served  having  been 
either  unable  or  unwilling  to  support  them. 

How  a  minister,  so  far  as  his  health  and  other  cir- 
cumstances permit,  ought  to  employ  his  time,  in  pri- 
vate as  well  as  in  public,  may  safely  be  gathered 
from  the  following  counsel,  given  by  the  aged  Paul, 
to  Timothy,  his  son  in  the  gospel  :  Give  attendance 
to  reading,  to  exhortation,  to  doctrine.  By  reading 


.  xxxix.  7.     a  2  Tim.  ii.  4. 


SER.  XI.]        HIS    DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  347 

and  comparing  the  Holy  Scriptures,  a  minister 
should  become  well  versed  in  them ;  that  so,  both 
his  exhortations  to  duty  and  his  statements  and  il- 
lustrations of  doctrine,  may  be  agreeable  to  them, 
and  that  he  may  not  (a^  many  do)  contradict  in  ex- 
hortation what  he  teaches  in  doctrine.  Neglect  not, 
adds  the  apostle,  the  gift  that  is  in  thee — meditate 
upon  these  things,  the  things  contained  in  the  sacred 
books  which  he  had  counselled  him  to  read,  and  the 
ministerial  duties  he  had  enjoined  him  to  perform 
— Give  thyself  wholly  to  them;  that  thy  profiting 
may  appear  unto  all.  Take  heed  unto  thyself,  in 
principle  and  practice,  and  to  thy  doctrine,  that  it 
be  scriptural ;  continue  in  them,  that  is,  in  the  faith- 
ful discharge  of  all  the  duties  specified  ;  for  in  do- 
ing  this,  thou  shalt  instrumentally  both  save  thyself 
and  them  that  hear  thee.z  Study  to  show  thyself 
approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not 
to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth." 
And,  that  Timothy  and  every  gospel-minister  might 
be  the  more  deeply  affected  with  the  authority,  use- 
fulness and  sufficiency  of  that  word,  the  apostle 
adds,  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God, 
and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  cor- 
rection, for  instruction  in  righteousness,  that  the  man 
of  God,  both  as  a  Christian  and  a  minister,  may  be 
perfect,  in  the  knowledge  of  what  he  should  teach, 
being  thoroughly  furnished  with  an  inspired  direc- 
tory unto  all  good  works,  devotional  and  ministerial, 
without  any  addition  either  from  Jewish  tradition 
or  from  his  own  invention.15  And  having  thus  assur- 
ed Timothy  of  the  divine  authority,  and  perfect  ful- 

*  1  Tim.  iv.  13—16.     »2  Tim.  ii.  15.     b2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17, 


348  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEV].  [SER.  Xl« 

ness  of  the  icord  of  truth,  the  apostle  most  solemn-* 
ly  enjoined  him  to  publish  it :  I  charge  thee  there- 
fore before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his  appearing 
and  his  kingdom — Preach  the  word,  that  word, 
and  that  only,  which  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God  ; 
be  instant  in  season,  be  always  ready  at  every  usual 
and  stated  time  for  preaching,  also  out  of  season — - 
be  so  conversant  with  your  Bible  and  so  disentan- 
gled from  the  world,  as  to  be  prepared  and  at  liberty 
to  embrace  all  occasions  and  opportunities  for  mi- 
nisterial usefulness,  however  unexpected  and  out  of 
the  ordinary  way;  and,  in  performing  this  work,  re- 
prove, rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  long-suffering,  toward 
the  impenitent  and  refractory — and  with  doctrine 
also,  which  must  never  be  forgotten  by  a  minister 
amid  his  highest  strains  of  experimental  and  prac* 
tical  preaching.0 

To  precede.  As  the  ministers  of  Christ  must 
not  be  drawn  from  their  work  by  the  flatteries  and 
allurements  of  the  world,  so  neither  must  they  be 
driven  from  it,  by  the  reproaches  and  persecutions 
of  the  world.  These,  by  divine  appointment,  fall  to 
their  lot:  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  nations  for  my 
name's  sake,  said  Christ  to  his  apostles. d  And 
when  he  would  assure  Ananias  that  Paul  was  a 
chosen  vessel  unto  him,  to  bear  his  name  before  the 
gentiles,  and  kings,  and  the  children  of  Israel,  he 
made  no  mention  of  any  worldly  riches,  honors  or 
preferments,  by  which  he  should  be  distinguished, 
but  of  the  great  sufferings  he  should  endure ;  these, 

*  %  Tim.  iv,  1, 2,  &c.      d  Matt,  xxiv.  9, 


SKR.  XI.]         HIS    DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  349 

as  it  were,  should  be  the  evidence  of  his  calling  and 
the  badge  of  his  apostleship :  For,  said  his  Master, 
I  will  show  him  how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for 
my  name's  sake.*  Aware  of  this,  Paul  expected 
great  sufferings  in  his  Master's  cause,  and  was  fear- 
less and  tranquil  in  the  prospect  of  them :  None  of 
these  things  move  me}  said  he,  neither  count  I  my, 
life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my 
course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  which  I  have  re- 
ceived, not  of  men,  nor  at  the  schools,  but  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God.{  In  Paul  we  behold  strongly  exemplified,  the 
happy  effect  of  a  minister's  faith  in  God's  personal 
election  of  his  people  to  grace  and  glory :  I  endure 
all  things,  said  he,  for  the  elects  sake,  that  they 
may  also,  as  well  as  himself,  obtain  the  salvation 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  with  eternal  glory ;  that  is, 
he  would  at  all  hazards,  preach  the  gospel  to  Jews 
and  gentiles,  and  thereby  encourage  others  to  do 
likewise,  that  the  elect  might  be  called  to  the  know- 
ledge of  their  interest  in  Christ,  and  that,  being 
called,  they  might  be  encouraged  and  advanced  in 
their  heavenly  journey/  For  strength,  however, 
thus  to  labor  and  suffer,  the  apostle  relied  not  on 
himself  but  on  his  Lord  and  Master:  I  can  do  all 
things,  said  he,  through  Christ  who  strengthened 
me.h  And  accordingly,  when  he  would  exhort  Ti- 
mothy to  endure  hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ,  he  wisely  prefaced  the  exhortation  with  this 
needful  and  encouraging  direction :  My  son,  be 
strong  in  the  grace  that  is  in  Christ  JesusS 

e  Acts  ix.  15,  16.      t Ibid.  xx.  24.      * 2  Tim.  ii.10.      h  Philip. 
iv.  13.     i2Tim.ii.  1.3. 


350  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEV1.  [SER.  XI. 

Again.  Gospel-ministers,  in  declaring  and  doing 
the  will  of  God,  must,  like  the  levitical  priests,  be 
strictly  impartial.  In  faithfulness  to  the  nnregenerate, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  noble  or  ignoble,  and  whe- 
ther, to  us,  known  or  unknown,  friends  or  foes,  we 
must  show  from  the  Scriptures,  that  however  diver- 
sified in  other  respects,  they  are  all  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins — that,  as  such,  they  are  under  the 
condemnatory  sentence  of  God's  righteous  law,  and 
that  they  must  be  born  of  his  Spirit  and  justified  in 
his  Son,  or  perish  for  ever :  for  by  one  man  sin  en- 
tered into  the  world  and  death  by  sin ;  and  so  death 
passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned ;  nay 
more,  by  the  offense  of  one,  judgment  came  upon  all 
men  to  condemnation^  Except,  therefore,  a  man 
be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God ; 
and  except  he  be  justified  in  Christ,  he  cannot  be 
saved ;  there  being  no  salvation  in  any  other}  And, 
in  addressing  delinquent  professors,  we  must  not 
palliate  the  faults  of  some,  because  they  are  our 
fleshly  relatives  or  particular  friends,  or  because  they 
are  distinguished  by  wealth,  talents  or  influence ; 
nor  aggravate  the  faults  of  others,  because  they  have 
no  such  claims  or  advantages ;  but  must  deal  with 
the  consciences  of  all  according  to  divine  direction, 
without  prefer  ing  one  before  another ;  doing  nothing 
by  partiality. m  Nor  can  gospel-ministers,  without 
incurring  their  Master's  displeasure,  and  forfeiting 
the  promise  of  his  presence  and  sanction,  withhold 
from  their  hearers,  Jews  or  gentiles,  any  thing  which 
He  hath  commanded  them  to  teach  :  "  Go  ye,"  saith 

k  Rom.  v.  12.  18.  i  John  iii.  3.  7  and  Acts  iv.  12.  m  1  Tim. 
F.  21. 


SER.  XI.]         HIS   DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  351 

he,  "  and  teach  all  nations,"  that  is,  publish  to  them, 
according  to  the  Scriptures,  their  lost  condition  arid 
the  only  way  of  salvation;  "baptizing  them"  (not 
all  the  individuals  of  all  nations,  as  such,  but 
them,  among  all  nations,  whom  they  should  find  giv- 
ing evidence  of  having  received  the  truth  with  faith 
and  love)  "  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  teaching  them  to  ob- 
serve all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you  ;  arid  lo,"  (they  continuing  to  do  so,)  "  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. "n 

Thirdly,  In  certain  respects,  moreover,  the  sons 
of  Levi  were  typical  of  the  saints  in  common,  under 
the  gospel-dispensation. 

Like  the  Levites,  all  the  regenerate  are  of  those 
whom  God  hath  chosen  and  taken  as  his  first-born, 
or  heirs ;°  and  being  (as  believers)  justified  freely  by 
his  grace,  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,  they  are  openly  made  heirs  according  to  the 
hope  of  eternal  life.p 

As  the  Levites,  by  divine  order,  were  given  to 
Aaron  and  his  sons,q  so,  by  divine  influence,  the 
elect,  at  their  conversion,  become  visibly  the  proper- 
ty, and  willingly  the  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
the  great  High-priest  of  our  profession,  and  cheerful- 
ly and  cordially  the  adherents  and  helpers  of  his  sons, 
his  gospel-ministers.  So  saith  the  apostle  concerning 
believers  in  Macedonia :  they  Jirst  gave  their  own 
selves  to  the  Lord,  the  Lord  Christ,  and  [then]  to  us 
by  the  will  of  God.  Hence  the  riches  of  their  lib- 

"Matt,  xxviii.  19.  20.  °Num.  iir.  12.  Heb.  xit.  23.  Comp. 
Rom.  viii.  17.  P  Rom.  iii.  24.  Titus  iii.  7.  i  Num.  vrii.  19; 

47 


THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [sKR.    Xf, 

erality  toward  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  especially 
in  ministering  to  the  relief  of  his  needy  members/ 

Were  the  children  of  Lem  all  carefully  numbered?' 
Let  this  remind  us  of  the  care  which  God  takes,  that 
all  whose  names  he  wrote  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life, 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,1  are,  in  the  order 
of  time,  by  effectual  vocation,  written  among  the 
living  in  Jerusalem"  that  so  they  may  all  be  reck- 
oned as  such,  when  he  shall  make  up  his  jewels  at  the 
last  day.  Nor  can  one  be  lost  or  missing  :  ior  the 
LORD  himself  shall  count,  when  he  writeth  t*p  the 
people  that,  to  the  last  individual  of  them,  thi;  man 
was  born  there" 

Did  God  require  that  the  Levites  should  bo  cere- 
monially clean?*  How  much  more  doth  he  roquire 
that  all  whom  he  hath  called  to  be  saints  should  be 
morally  clean:  Be  ye  holy,  saith  he,/or  I am  holy. 7 
We  are  not  only  Levites,  but  also  priests  unto  God  f 
and  though,  as  believers  under  the  gospel,  whether 
ministers  or  private  Christians,  we  are  not  forbidden 
to  approach  dead  bodies  or  to  attend  funerals,  which 
(with  certain  exceptions)  were  unlawful  to  the  leviti- 
cal  priests;3  yet  we  are  most  solemnly  cautioned 
against  whatever  those  deadly  things  mystically  sig- 
nified; as  any  unnecessary  association  with  those 
dead  in  sin — conformity  to  the  world  that  licth  in 
wickedness,  and  all  moral  pollutions,  which,  as  well 
as  abolished  ceremonies,  are  called  dead  workn.b 

In  their  administration  of  justice,  too,  the  Lovites 

r 2  Cor.  viii.  1 — 5.  •  Num.  iii.  15.  *  Rev.  xiii.  8.  "Is.  iv.  3. 
wpsal.  Ixxxvii.  6.  *Num.  viii.6,  &c.  y  1  Pet.  i.  15, 16.  Levit. 
xi.  44.  «  Rev.  i.  6.  » Levit.  xxi.  1—3.  Ezek.  xliv.  25.  bHeb. 
ix.  14.  Rom.  xii.  2.  2  Cor.  vi.  14—18* 


«ER.  XI.]      HIS   DEPORTMENT   AM)   SERVICE. 

fitly  typified  the  members  of  the  gospel-church,  in 
the  conduct  which  they  ought  to  observe  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  Herein  the 
saints  are  judges  ;c  and  all,  both  ministers  and  pri- 
vate members,  should  seek  to  be  governed  by  that 
wisdom  which  is  from  above,  and  which  is  without 
partiality  toward  relatives  or  friends,  rich  or  poor.d 
In  she  rt,  we  should  endeavor,  like  the  Levites,  to 
observe  the  word  of  the  Lord  in  all  things,  as  the  rule 
of  our  procedure,  and  to  keep  his  covenant,  by  which 
we  arc  bound  to  him  and  to  one  another.  This  is  to 
keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace. 
Eph.  iv.  3. 

Having  considered  the  deportment  of  the  Levites 
both  literally  and  typically,  I  proceed,  in  like  manner, 
to  consider, 

II.  Their  work.  Much  of  this,  indeed,  has  been 
necessarily  anticipated  in  exhibiting  their  deport- 
ment. What  remains  consists  of  two  parts — teach- 
ing and  offering. 

FIRST,  teaching:  "  They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy 
judgments  and  Israel  thy  law.5'  The  patriarch  Ja- 
cob having  received  the  new  name  of  Israel?  his 
posterity,  the  more  certainly  to  identify  them,  are 
called  both  Jacob  and  Israel.  This  people,  the  Le- 
vites were  to  teach  the  judgments  and  the  law  of 
God.  By  his  judgments,  in  this  place,  are  evidently 
meant  those  rules  which  he  gave  for  the  civil  govern- 
ment of  Israel,  and  which  constitute  what  we  com- 
monly call  the  judicial  law  ;b  and  by  his  law,  as 
here  distinguished  therefrom,  I  understand  his  com- 
mandments, both  moral  and  ceremonial,  by  which 

c  1  Cor.  vi.  1—3.  dJas.iii.  17.   »Gen.  xxxii.  28.   bExo.xxi.l. 


354  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEV*.  [SER.  XI* 

he  expressed  and  defined  his  will  respecting  their 
moral  and  religous  obligations  to  him.c  These  judg- 
ments and  commandments,  the  levitical  priests,  by 
divine  authority  explained  to  Israel,  arid  solemnly 
urged  their  observance  of  them ;  they  taught  all  Is- 
rael? and  thereby  caused  the  people  to  understand 
the  law.6 

Among  the  levitical  teachers,  the  high-priest  was 
pre-eminent.  Of  him  especially,  it  was  said  from 
heaven,  The  priests  lips  should  keep  knowledge,  and 
they  (the  people)  should  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth  ; 
for  he  is  the  messenger  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  J  In  his 
work,  therefore,  as  well  as  in  his  deportment,  the 
high-priest  was  manifestly  a  type  of  Christ ;  in  whom 
are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  ivisdom  and  knowledge  f 
who,  not  only  as  a  Saviour  but  also  as  a  Teacher,  is 
eminently  The  Messenger  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  to  his 
people,  and  who  are  required  to  seek  and  receive  the 
law,  the  revealed  will  of  God,  at  his  mouth;  for 
more  than  once  was  it  proclaimed  from  the  excellent 
glory,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son ;  hear  him"h  As  a 
preacher,  during  his  public  ministry,  Jesus  went 
about  all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  Synagogues,  and 
preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  ;  nay,  was  ac- 
cused by  his  nation,  of  doing  the  same  throughout 
all  Jeiory.1  But  he  is  a  teacher  in  a  higher  sense 
than  merely  as  a  preacher  ;  He  is  the  Lord  who  gave 
the  word* — He  gave,  and  still  gives  all  inferior 
teachers1 — and  from  him  comes  the  unction  of  the 

*  Exo.  xxxiv.  28.  Levit.  xxvii.  34.  •  Comp.  Num.  xxxvi.  13. 
d  3  Chror.  xxxv.  3.  eNeh.  viii.  7.  Comp.  Levit.  x.  ii.  f  Mai.  ii. 
7.  «Co1.  ii.  3.  h  Matt.  hi.  Mark  ix.  7.  '  Matt.  iv.  23.  Luke 
xxii:.  5  kPral.  Ixviii.  11.  »  Eph.  iv.  11. 


M;R.  XI.]       HIS    DEPORTMENT     AND     SERVICE.  355 

Spirit,  by  which  sinners  are  made  wise  unto  salva- 
tion.111 Thus,  according  to  promise,  He  emphatically 
teacheth  lost  sinners  to  profit,  and  Icadcth  them  in 
the  way  they  should  go.* 

The  other  priests,  however,  were  also  teachers  ;° 
though  as  under  the  keeping  and  direction  of  the 
high-priest.p  And  as  thus  employed,  they  were  types 
of  gospel-ministers,  who  are  teachers,  by  the  au- 
thority and  direction  of  Christ,  our  great  High- 
priest.  Matt,  xxviii.  19. 

As  the  levitical  priests  were  required  to  teach,  not 
any  inventions  or  discoveries  of  their  own,  but  the 
judgments  and  the  law  of  God  :  so  gospel-ministers 
are  not  authorized  to  originate  any  doctrine  or  or- 
dinance, or  to  omit  or  alter  any  of  those  revealed,  but 
to  Preach  the  word ;  remembering  that  all  Scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God.q 

The  word  which  gospel-ministers  are  to  preach, 
consists  of  two  general  branches,  the  legal  and  the 
evangelical ;  the  former  called  the  law  of  works,  the 
latter,  the  laic  of  faith.1  But,  preparatory  to  their 
teaching  these,  they  must  necessarily  have  an  under- 
standing of  them;  for  otherwise,  like  the  Jewish  doc- 
tors, they  will  be  found  desiring  to  be  teachers  of  the 
law,  understanding  neither  what  they  say,  nor 
whereof  they  affirm,3  and,  like  the  false  apostles, 
preaching  another  gospel,  and  laboring  to  pervert 
the  gospel  of  Christ.1  Nor  is  it  sufficient  for  them 
to  have  an  understanding  of  law  and  gospel  merely 
in  theory ;  this  the  unregenerate  may  have ;  they 

w  Uohn  ii.  20.  27.  *  Is.  xlviii.  17.  °  Levit.  x.  11.  P  Num. 
viii.  19.  12  Tim.  iii.  16.  17.  iv.  1.  2.  r  Rom.  iiit  27.  .  j  Tim>  j  7> 
'  Gal.  1. 6—8. 


356  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [SER.    Xt. 

may  collect  it  from  the  letter  of  Scripture  and  the 
writings  of  men  ;  and  so  may  hold  the  truth  in  un- 
righteousness ,<u  but  they  must  have  an  understanding 
of  both  law  and  gospel  in  experience  ;  through  the 
law,  they  must  have  become  dead  to  the  law,  to  all 
hopes  of  obtaining  justification  by  their  obedience  to 
it,  and  must  have  realized  in  their  own  souls,  that 
the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth™ 

Now,  men  who  have  so  learned  the  truth,  and  who 
are  endued  with  such  gifts  of  the  Spirit  as  ren- 
der them  apt  to  teach,  (and  none  but  such  are  di- 
vinely called  to  this  work,)  are  qualified  to  preach 
the  word  in  both  its  branches,  and  should  do  it  as  in 
the  sight  of  God,  to  whom  they  must  give  an  account 
of  their  stewardship. 

In  preaching  the  legal  branch  of  the  word,  they 
should,  as  occasion  offers,  show 

1.  That  the  moral  duties,  which  God  by  the  writ- 
ten laic  requires  of  mankind,  both  toward  himself 
and  one  another,  are  essentially  the  same  that  he 
required  by  the  law  of  nature,  which  he  originally 
inscribed  on  the  heart  of  man* — that  the  written  law, 
nevertheless,  by  corroborating  and  enforcing  the  law 
of  nature,  makes  these  requirements  the  more  man- 
ifest, and  thereby  renders  transgression  and  rebelion 
the  more  criminal ;  also  that  the  final  judgment  of 
those  who  die  in  their  sins,  will  be  in  just  proportion 
to  the  light  they  shall  have  had,  as  having  lived  un- 
der the  written  law,  or  without  it.  Rom.  ii.  12* 

»  Rom.  1.  18.     w  Ibid.  ver.  16.     *  See  Ser.  iii.  p.  129—133. 


SER.  XI.]       HIS  DEPORTMENT  AND  SERVICE.  357 

2.  That  God's  moral  requirements,  like  his  per- 
fections whence  they  emanate,  are  necessarily  im- 
mutable and  eternal ;  and  that  his  positive  injunctions, 
as  they  procede  from  his  sovereign  will,  can  never, 
of  right,  be  changed  or  dispensed  with,  but  by  a  new 
revelation  of  his  will.  Consider  Gen.  xxii.  2.  12.  and 
Col.  ii.  14.  16. 17*.     And  hence, 

3.  That  although  the  ceremonial  law  is  abolished 
and  done  away  in  Christ?  and  the  judicial  law,  at 
least  suspended  till  the  return  of  the  Jews  to  their 
own  land — nay,  though  the  whole  Jewish  economy 
is  supplanted  by  a  new  dispensation,  yet,  that  God's 
moral  requirements  remain  the  same ;  for,  as  they 
were  not  originated  with  the  Sinaitical  dispensation, 
so  they  underwent  no  change  by  its  abrogation  ;  and, 
tried  by  these,  as  a  standard  of  moral  perfection, 
every  mouth,  both  as  to  pleas  and  excuses,  must  be 
stopped,  and  all  the  world  become  evidently  guilty 
before  God* 

Thus  understanding  God's  moral  requirements 
and  the  condition  of  mankind  in  relation  to  them, 
and  having  felt  the  condemnatory  sentence  of  his  holy 
and  righteous  law  in  their  own  consciences,  minis- 
ters of  the  word  can  never  encourage  those  they 
address,  to  trust  in  their  own  obedience  to  that  law 
for  justification  before  God  ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
both  according  to  the  word  and  their  own  experience, 
must  assure  them,  that  the  law  entering  into  the  en- 
lighted  understanding,  worketh,  not  peace,  and 
hope,  and  life,  but  distress,  despair  and  death — yea 
wrath)  that  is,  alarming  apprehensions  of  the  wrath 

*  See  Ser;  Hi.  p.  129.        *  2  Cor.  iii.  13, 14.        z  Rom.  iii.  19. 


358  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEV1.  [sEU.  XI. 

of  God  ;a  and  hence,  they  labor  to  convince  them,  that 
by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall  no  flesh  be  justified 
— that  by  the  law,  rightly  understood,  is  the  know- 
ledge of  sin,  in  heart  and  life  ;*>  and  that  as  many  as 
are  of  the  works  of  the  law,  that  is,  are  seeking  to 
be  justified  by  their  legal  performances,  are  under 
the  curses 

The  law  of  works,  thus  explained  and  understood, 
makes  way  for  the  entrance  and  reception  of  the  law 
of  faith,  that  is,  the  gospel ;  which  is  so  called  be- 
cause therein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed 
from  faith  to  faithd — from  one  degree  of  faith  to 
another ;  or  rather,  from  the  faithfulness  or  veracity 
of  Go.d,  (sometimes  called  his  faith,  Rom.  iii.  3.)  to 
the  grace  of  faith  wrought  in  the  soul  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  By  the  righteousness  of  God,  thus  revealed, 
is  meant  that  righteousness  which  is  the  result  of 
Christ's  obedience  and  sacrifice  ;e  and  which  is 
stiled  the  righteousness  of  God,  not  only  because 
Christ,  the  author  of  it,  is  God,  but  because  it  is  that 
righteousness  which  God  the  Father  accepts  as  sat- 
isfactory to  his  law  and  justice,  and  which,  to  all  in 
whom  he  works  faith  to  receive  it,  he  imputes  for  jus- 
tification in  his  sight.  Thus  it  is,  that  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  is 
unto  all  and  upon  all  them  that  believe,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles ;  for,  in  this  national  sense,  there 
is  no  difference  ; — all  having  alike  sinned  and  come 
short  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  all  believers  being 
(alike)  justified  freely  by  his  grace,  through  the  re- 
demption that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. { 

*  Rom.  iv.   15.  vii.  9—13.         b  Ibid.  iii.  20.       c  Gal.  iii.  10. 
d  Rom.  i.  17.     •  Philip,  iii.  9.       f  Rom.  iii.  21—26. 


SER.  XI.]        HIS    DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVffcE.  359 

In  preaching  the  word,  however,  Gospel-ministers, 
knowing  that  God's  moral  requirements  of  mankind, 
as  shown  above,  remain  the  same  under  the  present 
dispensation  that  they  were  under  the  former,  should 
faithfully  urge  them  upon  the  unregenerate,  in  all 
their  extent  and  spirituality;  showing,  nevertheless, 
that  all  who  are  saved,  are  saved  by  absolute  grace 
— grace  reigning  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.s  Some  ministers  ap- 
pear to  be  afraid  of  doing  the  former,  lest  they  should 
thereby  seem  to  eclipse  the  latter.  But  this  is  a 
groundless  apprehension;  for,  on  the  contrary,  the 
more  clearly  God's  moral  requirements  are  exhibited, 
and  thereby  man's  total  non-conformity  to  them  de- 
monstrated, the  more  absolute  and  illustrious  does 
that  grace  appear,  by  which  any  are  saved. 

Now  God's  moral  requirements  of  mankind,  man- 
ifestly include  the  following. 

1.  That  they  should  love  him  with  all  their  heart, 
and  soul,  and  strength,  and  mind,  and  one  another 
as  themselves ;  which  implies  that  they  should 
honor,  adore  and  worship  God  with  all  their  powers, 
and  severally  desire,  and  endeavor  to  promote,  the 
good  of  each  other,  even  as  their  own.h  On  these 
two  commandments,  said  Christ,  hang  all  the  law 
and  the  prophets.1  Nor  can  it  be  reasonably  doubted, 
that  human  nature,  as  it  came  from  the  Maker's 
hand,  was  able  and  disposed  to  comply  with  these 
moral  duties ;  for  God  made  man  upright*  In 
their  fallen  state,  however,  mankind,  while  unregen- 
erate, are  the  very  reverse  of  what  they  are  re- 

*  Rom.  v.  21.  h  Luke  x.  27.  l  Matth.  xxii.  40.  *  Ecc.  viL 
291 

48 


360  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  XI. 

quired  to  be ;  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God?  and  all,  as  under  its  dominion,  are  hateful 
and  hating  one  another.™  God,  therefore,  most 
justly  requires  of  them, 

2.  That  they  should  repent,  that  is,  return  to  him 
from  whom  they  have  so  basely  revolted.  This  he  has 
constantly  required  of  all  to  whom  he  has  granted 
his  written  word,  or  sent  his  public  servants.     Of 
the  Jews,  to  whom  he  granted  his  Oracles  and  sent 
his  prophets,  he  required  this  under  the  old  dispen- 
sation ;  saying  to  them,  Repent,  and  turn  yourselves 
from  your  idols ;  and  turn  away  your  faces  from 
all  your  abominations ;  turn  ye,  turn  ye,  from  your 
evil  ways ;  for  why  icill  ye  die,  O  house  of  Israel? 
The  Gentiles,  it  is  true,  during  that  dispensation,  were 
not  so  called ;  for  though,  having  abused  the  light  of 
nature,  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened,  they  were 
left  in  their  stupidity,  to  debase  themselves  more  and 
more :°  the  times  of  this  ignorance  in  them,  God 
winked  at,  that  is,  overlooked,  as  *w*f « J«»,  the  word 
used,  properly  signifies ;  and  the  sense  is,  that  hav- 
ing giving   them  no  revelation,  nor  sent  any  pro- 
phets among   them,  he  did  not  thereby  call  them 
to  repentance,  nor  exact  of  them  an  improvement  of 
such  means  ;  but  now,  having  sent  his  Son  into  the 
world,  and  having,  through  him,  broken  down  the 
partition  wall  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  au- 
thorized the   extention  of  the  Scriptures   and   the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  all  the  world,  God  herein 
commandeth  all  men,  men  of  all  nations,  every  where 
to  repent.?    Meravoaiv,  the  word  here  rendered  Repent, 

1  Ram.  viii.  7.     m  Titus  iii.  3.  n  Eze.  xiv.  6.  xxxiii.  11.  °  Rom. 
i.  2L  4&      P  Acts  xvii»  &). 


SER.  XI. J      HIS  DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  361 

is  the  same  with  which  the  SAVIOUR,  as  well  as  the 
Baptist,  began  his  public  ministry .q  It  signifies  Re- 
form,  that  is,  change  your  mind  and  your  practice. 
That  it  imports  a  change  of  mind,  producing  a 
change  of  conduct,  is  plain  from  the  use  of  oru  ni- 
cham,  the  Hebrew  word  to  which  it  often  corresponds 
in  the  Septuagint.  See  Jer.  xxxi.  19,  and  compare 
Ezk.  xviii.  30. 

Such  was  the  repentance  which  God  required  of 
the  Jews :  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  to  the  men  of 
Judah  and  Jerusalem,  Break  up  your  fallow  ground 
and  sow  not  among  thorns.  Circumcise  your  hearts 
to  the  Lord,  fyc.  lest  my  fury  come  forth  like  fire, 
and  burn  that  none  can  quench  it,  because  of  the 
evil  of  your  doings, r  Rtpent  and  turn  yourselves 
from  all  your  transgressions  ,*  so  iniquity  shall  not 
be  your  ruin.  Cast  away  from  you  all  your  trans- 
gressions whereby  ye  have  transgressed;  and  make 
you  a  new  heart :  for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house  of 
Israel  ?8  Turn  ye  even  to  me  with  all  your  heart, 
and  with  fasting,  and  with  weeping,  and  with  mourn- 
ing:  and  rend  your  heart  and  not  your'  garments, 
and  turn  unto  the  Lord  your  God.1 

Nor  could  either  Christ  or  John  have  meant  any 
thing  less  by  the  injunction,  Repent  ye;  for  the 
kingom  of  heaven,  the  gospel-church,  is  at  hand, 
into  which  they  could  not  of  right  enter,  without 
such  repentance  ;  nor  the  apostle,  when  he  said, 
God  commandcth  all  men  every  where  to  repent,  un- 
der the  awful  consideration  of  a  general  judgment: 
Because  he  hath  appointed  a  day  in  the  which  he 

*  Matth.  iii.  2.  iv.  17.  r  Jer.  iv.  3,  4.  *  Ezels.  xviii.  30,  31. 
*  Joel  &  12,13. 


362  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEV1.  [sER.  XI. 

will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  &$c.    Acts  xvii. 
30,  31.     Moreover,  God  requires  of  mankind, 

3.  That  they  should  believe  what  he  has  revealed. 
Like  Adam  and  Em,  all  their  posterity  dishonor 
God,  by  disbelieving  Him  who  cannot  lie,"  and  be- 
lieving Satan,  who  has  been  a  liar  and  a  murderer 
from  the  beginning  ;w  nothing  therefore  could  be 
more  right  and  reasonable,  than  God's  requirement 
that  mankind  should  believe,  according  to  the  de- 
grees of  revelation  with  which  he  has  favoured  them. 
Nor  has  he  required  this,  but  upon  sufficient  evi- 
dence. The  heathen  may  read  in  the  volume  of 
nature,  all  that,  as  such,  they  are  required  to  be- 
lieve.* And  though  all  who  live  under  the  light  of 
revelation  are  required  to  believe  in  this  light;  yet 
they  are  not  required  to  believe  in  it  upon  the  author- 
ity of  men,  but  upon  the  authority  of  God.  The 
writings  of  Moses  are  to  be  believed,  because  of  the 
miracles  which  God  wrought  by  him,  in  Egypt,  at  the 
Red  sea,  and  in  the  wilderness,  and  especially  on  ac- 
count of  the  intercommunity  which  He  held  with  him, 
before  the  eyes  of  the  Israelites,  on  mount  Sinai.i 
The  prophetic  writings  are  to  be  believed,  because 
God  spake  by  his  Spirit  in  the  prophets.2  And  much 
more  abundantly  is  the  divine  authority  of  the  New 
Testament-writings  established,  by  the  record  of 
miracles  wrought  by  Christ  and  his  apostles :  These 
tire  written9  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God.* 

To    deny   the    truth   of  the    Holy    Scriptures, 
therefore,  is  to  deny  the  veracity  of  God,  and  to 

u  Heb.  vi.  18.    w  Gen.  iii.  4—6.  John  viii.  44.  *  Rom.  i.  19,  20. 
y  Exo.  xix*  9.  16—26.  *  JNeb.  ix.30»  Zech.  vii.  1&  *  John  x*  31, 


SER.  XI.]        HIS   DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  363 

treat  with  contempt  the  only  method  of  Salvation 
which  he  has  provided  and  revealed :  He  that  be- 
lieveth  not  God,  hath  made  him  a  liar;  because  he 
belicreth  not  the  record  that  God  gave  of  his  Son.* 
The  disbelief  of  divine  revelation,  then,  must  be 
highly  provoking  to  God  and  injurious  to  sinners. 
Condemned  already  according  to 'the  law,  mankind 
increase  their  guilt  and  augment  their  future  punish- 
ment, by  their  contempt  of  the  gospel :  This  is  the 
condemnation,  that  is,  the  aggravation  of  it,  that 
light  is  come  into  the  world  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil.*  To 
the  Jews,  under  the  old  dispensation,  the  consequen- 
ces of  their  disbelief  of  God  arid  distrust  of  his  pro- 
mised salvation,  were  exceedingly  calamitous  :  afire 
was  kindled  against  Jacob,  and  anger  also  came  up 
against  Israel ;  because  they  believed  not  in  God, 
and  trusted  not  in  his  salvation;  meaning,  either  that 
they  trusted  "not  in  God  for  his  providential  salvation 
of  them,  but  leaned  on  their  national  allies,  the 
Egyptians  and  others,  or,  that  they  trusted  not  in  the 
MESSIAH,  who  is  God's  salvation,  but  in  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  which  only  prefigured  him,  or  in  the 
oral  law,  consisting  of  the  traditions  of  their  elders.4 
How  terrible,  then,  must  be  the  fate  of  gospel-des- 
pisers,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from 
heaven  taking  vengeance  on  them  that  know  not  God 
and  obey  not  the  gospel  1e 

Faithful  heralds  of  the  cross,  therefore,  knowing 
the  terror  of  the  Lord,  persuade  men,  to  credit  the 

b  1  John  v.  10.  c  John  iii.  19.  d  Psal  Ixxviii.  21,  22.  Comp. 
Numb.  xi.  1—3,  Nahum.  i.  6.  Psal.  xcv.  8.  11.  Heb.  iii.  17— 
19.  °2Thess.i.  7. 


364  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [sER.  XI. 

sentence  of  condemnation  under  which  they  lie, 
and  warn  them  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come;*  yes, 
when  duly  affected  with  their  deplorable  condition, 
we  labor,  as  opportunities  offer,  to  convince  them  of 
their  guilt,  and  danger,  and  helplessness,  and  to  ex- 
cite them  to  abandon  every  other  refuge,  and  to  look 
for  salvation  alone  by  Christ ;  whom  we  preach,  warn- 
ing every  man,  and  teaching  every  man,  in  all  wis- 
dom ;  that  we  may  present  every  man  we  address 
perfect  in  Christ  Jesus.%  For,  if  a  minister  had  be- 
fore him  some  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven,  he 
must  consider  them  all  alike  undone  and  helpless — 
could  preach  to  none  of  them  any  other  than  the  com- 
mon salvation — and,  relying  on  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
apply  the  word  according  to  covenant  design,  would 
endeavor  to  bring  every  one  to  an  unreserved  de- 
pendence upon  Christ  for  acceptance  with  God. 
See  Acts  iv.  12.  Rom.  x.  12.  and  Jude,  Ver.  3. 

Thus  Christ  himself  preached  :  Repent  ye,  said  he, 
and  believe  the  gospel ;  Mark  i.  15.  Thus  his  disci- 
ples preached :  They  went  out  andpreached  that  men 
should  repent ;  Ibid.  iv.  12.  And  the  ministerial 
labors  of  Paul  consisted  in  testifying  both  to  the  Jews 
and  also  to  the  Greeks,  repentance  toward  God  and 
faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Acts  xx.  21. 

Gospel-ministers,  however,  while  they  should  faith- 
fully proclaim  and  inculcate  repentance  toward  God 
and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  should  be 
careful  always  to  do  it  consistently  with  the  follow- 
ing revealed  facts :  viz. 

1.  That  repenting  and  believing  are  not  conditions 
for  the  performance  of  which  we  are  to  be  justified 
'2  Cor.  v.  U.  Matth,  iii  7,  a  *  Col.  i.  28. 


SER.  XI.]        HIS    DEPORTMENT    AND    SERVICE.  365 

before  God.  So  understood,  they  would  occupy  the 
place  of  Christ,  who  alone  is  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHT- 
EOUSNESS.h  But  they  are  duties  which,  saved  or  lost, 
we  owe  to  God,  as  being  the  subjects  of  his  moral 
government.  In  his  law,  as  noticed  before,  he  re- 
quires that  we  should  love  him  with  all  the  heart,  &c. 
and  consequently,  that  having  wickedly  revolted  from 
him,  and  denied  his  veracity,  we  should  penitently  and 
cordially  return  to  him,  and  believe  as  certainly  true, 
whatever  he  has  revealed ;  thus  casting  ourselves 
upon  his  mercy  in  Christ  Jesus.  See  Luke  xxiv.  47 
and  Acts  xxvi.  20. 

2.  That  so  repenting  and  believing,  though  not 
conditions,  are  indispensable  characteristics  of  an 
experimentally  saved  state.     For  the  stout  hearted, 
the  impenitent,  are  far  from  righteousness  ;i   and 
the  unbelieving  are  among  the  characters,  who,  dy- 
ing such,  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake  that  burn- 
eth  with  fire  and  brimstone*     He  that  believeth not 
shall  be  damned.     Mark  xvi.  16.     And, 

3.  That  such  repentance  toward  the  divine  Majesty 
and  faith  in  the  divine  record,  as  God  requires  of  all 
to  whom  he  grants  his  word  or  sends  his  minis- 
ters, none  are  capable  of,  in  their  carnal  state;  for, 
as  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,  it  is  im- 
possible that  any,  while  under  its  dominion,  should 
cordially  return  to  him,  or,  with  love  and  approbation, 
receive  his  revealed  truth,  either  in  the  law  or  in  the 
gospel.       See   Col.  i.   21.    and  2   Thess.   ii.    10. 
Nevertheless, 

4.  That  neither  the  divine  requirement  of  these 
duties,  not  the  ministerial  inculcation  of  them,  is 

k  Jer«  xxiii.  6.  *  I*  xlvi»  12.    *  Rev.  xxi.  a 


366  THE   BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  Xf, 

vain  or  unprofitable.  They  serve — 1.  To  apprize 
mankind  of  the  moral  obligations  which  they  are 
under  to  their  Creator,  and  to  admonish  them,  that 
while  persisting  in  their  rebellion  against  him,  they 
are,  after  the  hardness  and  impenitence  of  a  carnal 
heart,  treasuring  up  to  themselves  wrath  against  the 
day  of  wrath,  and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judg- 
ment of  God.1 — 2.  To  restrain  and  moralize  the 
wicked,  and  thereby  to  promote  their  own  good  and 
the  good  of  the  commonwealth :  Righteousness  ex- 
alteth  a  nation;  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  peo- 
ple.™— 3.  To  assure  sinners,  that  they  must  be  regen- 
erated in  order  to  be  happy ;  *for  without  this  gra- 
cious change,  they  can  never  become  reconciled  to 
God,  and  without  reconciliation  to  Him,  they  must 
necessarily  be  miserable  both  here  and  hereafter. 
They  must  be  so  here :  The  wicked  are  like  the 
troubled  sea^  ichen  it  cannot  rest. —  There  is  no 
peace  to  the  wicked?  And  they  must  be  infinitely 
more  so  hereafter :  He  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall 
not  see  life;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.0 
And — 4.  To  excite  those  in  whom  the  good  work  of 
grace  is  begun,  to  labor  after  compliance  with  these 
requirements;  and,  in  thus  laboring,  they,  being 
spiritually  illuminated,  discover  more  fully  their  de- 
pravity and  impotency,  and  thereby  their  entire  de- 
pendence upon  divine  influence,  to  enable  them  to 
exercise  true  repentance  toward  God,  and  an  appro- 
priating faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Nor  do  God's  moral  requirements  of  mankind  sug- 
gest any  thing  inconsistent  with  his  absolute  grace  in 

l  Rom.  ii.  5.    »  Prov.  xiv.  34.    B  Is.  Ivii.  20,  21.    °  John  iii.  36. 


SER.  XL]       HIS    DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  367 

the  effectual  calling  of  his  elect.  To  suppose,  as 
many  do,  that  a  divine  command,  necessarily  implies 
an  innate  ability  in  those  commanded,  to  comply — is 
to  suppose,  that  all  the  miracles  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles  were  mere  tricks  or  pious  frauds,  produced 
by  concert  with  their  patients.  For  instance  :  when 
Christ  said,  Lazarus  come  forth?  if  Lazarus  had  an 
innate  power  to  comply,  he  was  not  dead,  though  he 
had  lain  four  days  in  the  grave ;  and  his  coming 
forth  was  not  miraculous,  but  natural.  Again ; 
when  He  said  to  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy,  Arise — 
take  up  thy  bed  and  go  thy  way?  if  the  man  had  an 
innate  power  to  do  so,  he  wras  not  a  paralytic,  but 
a  hypocrite,  who  might  as  well  have  risen  and  walked 
before  as  then.  But  the  truth  is,  that  in  each  case, 
and  in  every  similar  one,  nothing  depended  upon 
the  patient,  but  all  upon  the  divine  energy  which  ac- 
companied the  word  of  him  who  spake.  Hence  it 
was  that  dead  Lazarus  lived  and  came  forth,  and 
that  the  helpless  paralytic,  rose  and  walked.  Happy 
illustration  of  what  the  same  Lord  Jesus,  in  a  way 
of  grace,  accomplishes  in  the  spiritual  resurrection 
of  morally  dead  and  helpless  sinners !  The  dead, 
said  he,  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
they  that  hear  shall  live.T 

The  same  also,  may  be  observed  of  the  miracles 
wrought  in  the  name  of  Christ,  by  his  apostles  :  He 
commanded  them,  saying,  "  Heal  ^the  sick,  cleanse 
the  lepers,  raise  the  dead,  cast  out  devils."8  Now, 
whoever  supposed  that  they  possessed  a  natural 
ability  to  do  these  things  1  Yet,  by  the  command, 

pJohnxi.  43.    <iMarkii.il.    »  John  v.  25.    •  Matt.  x.  8. 

49 


368  THE    BLESSING   OF   LEVI.  [SER.  XI. 

they  were  assured  that  divine  power  would  accom- 
plish them,  through  their  instrumentality.  Herein, 
Christ  gave  a  most  pertinent  illustration  of  the  use 
which  he  makes  of  his  ministers  in  the  calling  of 
his  people.  Accordingly,  having  by  a  parable  set 
forth  the  vain  excuses  made  by  many  of  the  Jews, 
for  not  attending  his  gospel,  and  the  success  which, 
nevertheless,  it  had  among  that  nation,  he  said  unto 
the  servant  (a  representative  of  gospel-ministers,)  Go 
out  into  the  high  ways*and  hedges,  that  is,  among 
the  Gentiles,  and  compel  them  to  come  in* — not 
by  force  of  arms,  but  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which  gospel-ministers  are  hereby  assured 
will  attend  their  labors  and  render  them  effectual  to 
this  end.  So  the  event  proved.  For  the  ministers 
of  the  word  being  dispersed  abroad,  and  employed 
in  preaching  the  Lord  Jesus — the  hand,  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  was  with  them,  and  a  great  number 
believed,  and  turned  unto  the  Lord.  Acts  xi.  21. 

After  all,  therefore,  the  heralds  of  salvation  should 
labor  chiefly  to  make  known  and  to  illustrate  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ,  and  the  absolute  grace 
of  God  in  him,  toward  the  chief  of  sinners.  By 
God's  absolute  grace,  I  mean  his  pure,  unconditional 
favor — his  favor,  which  has  no  dependence  upon  any 
good  thing  as  prerequisite  in  the  nature  or  the  lives 
of  its  objects  ;  and  which,  therefore,  is  favor  toward 
them,  considered  not  only  as  undeserving,  but  as 
ill- deserving — yea  as  hell-deserving." 

As  such  the  elect  of  God  were  considered,  when 
Christ  paid  the  ransom  price  for  them :  for  when  we 

«  Luke  xiv.  16—24.     u  Rom.  iii.  9—27.   1  Th«ss.  i.  10. 


SER.   XI.]       HIS   DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  369 

were  yet  without  strength,  to  repent,  to  believe,  to 
love,  or  to  obey,  in  due  time,  the  time  stipulated  in 
the  everlasting  covenant,  Christ  died  for  the  un- 
godly.v 

As  such,  too,  they  are  found  at  the  time  of  their 
effectual  calling :  When  I  passed  by  thee,  saith  the 
Lord,  and  saw  thee  polluted  in  thine  own  blood,  I 
said  unto  thee,  ichen  thou  wast  in  thy  blood,  Live* 
The  same,  likewise,  is  acknowledged  by  an  apostle 
for  himself  and  the  called  whom  he  addressed :  God, 
saith  he,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  his  great  love 
wherewith  he  loved  us,  even  when  we  were  dead  in 
sins,  hath  quickened  us,  SfcJ  This,  as  observed  by 
the  same  apostle,  God  accomplishes  by  his  Spirit, 
granted  through  the  Mediator:  Not  by  works  of 
righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  according  to 
his  mercy  he  saved  us  by  the  washing  of  regenera- 
tion, and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  which  he 
shed  upon  us  abundantly,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.*  Him  hath  God  exalted  with  his  right  hand, 
to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  for  to  give,  through 
him,  repentance  to  Israel,  and  forgiveness  of  sins.* 
For  the  Holy  Spirit,  granted  through  Christ  to  his 
redeemed,  produces  in  them  that  faith  by  which  they 
look  upon  him  whom  they  have  pierced  and  mourn 
with  a  godly  sorrow  for  their  sins  ;  yet,  believing, 
they  receive  the  manifestation  of  forgiveness,  and 
rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 
1  Peter  i.  8.  * 

Thus,  what  God  requires  in  the  law,  he  freely  be- 
stows in  Christ  and  reveals  in  the  gospel.     In  the 

w  Rom.  v.  6.  8.    *  Ezek.  xvi.  6.    7  Eph.  ii.  4,*5.  *  Titus  iii.  5, 6. 
a  Acts  v.  31. 


370  THE    BLESSING    OF    LEVI.  [sER.  XI 

law  he  requires   a  perfect   righteousness :    in  the 
gospel,  he  reveals  such  a  righteousness — even  the 
righteousness  of  Christ ;    and  his  imputation  there- 
of  to  believers,  is    called    the    gift   of  righteous- 
ness.*     According  to  the  covenant  of  works,  he  re- 
quires of  man,  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit  ;c  and, 
according  to  the  covenant  of  grace,  brought  to  light 
in  the  gospel,  he  graciously  bestows  these  very  bless- 
ings,— nay,  bestows  them  upon  the  very  people  of 
whom  he  demanded  them.d     According  to  the  law, 
he  requires  us  to  love  him  ;    and  according  to  the 
gospel,  he  enables  us  to  love  him— 4ie  sheds  abroad 
his  love  in  our  hearts,  by  the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto 
us.*    Hence,  We  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us.* 
Nor  are  we  any  less  dependent  on  absolute  grace 
after  called,  than  before.      In  our  fallen  nature, 
there  still  dwelleth  no  good  thing ;  and  hence  when 
we  would  do  good,  evil  is  present  with  us.*    The 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  are  constantly  engaged 
against  us ;  and  though  eventually  we  are  conquer- 
ors and  more,  yet  we  are  so  only  through  him  that 
hath  loved  us  and  given  himself  for  us.h     Our  per- 
petual standing  before  God,  is  in  the  finished  and 
everlasting  righteousness  of  Christ.1     The   pardon 
of  our  daily  faults  is  for  Christ's  sake ;  whose  aton- 
ing blood,  in  reference  to  divine  justice,  cleansethus 
from  all  sin.k     Having  no  resources  of  our  own,  we 
are  every  moment  entirely  dependent  on  the  grace 
that  is  in  Christ  Jesus.1     All  we  have  hitherto  re- 
ceived, has   emanated  from   him:    Of  his  fulness 

*>  Rom.  v.  17.  c  Ezek.  xviii.  31.  d  Ibid,  xxxvi.  25—32. 
«  Rom.  v.  5.  f  1  John  iv.  19.  e  Rom.  vii.  18—21.  h  Ibid,  viii, 
37.  Epli.  v.  2.  '  Rom.  v.  2.  k  1  John  i.  7.  l  2  Tim.  ii.  1. 


SER.  XI.]      HIS  DEPORTMENT    AND    SERVICE.  371 

have  all  we  (believers)  received  ;m  and,  blessed  be  his 
name,  we  are  encouraged  to  hope  that  from  the  same 
fulness   we   shall  continue   to  receive ;   He  giveth 
more  grace,"  even  grace  to  help  in  every  time  of 
need.*     Hence  we  have  all  our  strength  for  doing 
and  suffering  the  will  of  God  :    Without  me,  saith 
Christ  to  his  disciples,  ye  can  do  nothing  ;p   but, 
strengthened  by  him,  we  can  do  all   things.*     The 
church,  like  ancient  Israel,  at  every  stage  of  her 
pilgrimage,  may  raise  her  Ebenezer  and  say,  Hitherto 
hath  the  Lord  helped  us  ;r  and  every  member  thereof, 
with  the  grateful  apostle,  may  exclaim,  By  the  grace 
of  God  I  am  what  I  am.*     Nor  can  the  provisions 
of  grace  in  Christ  ever  fail ;  for  it  pleased  the  Fa- 
ther, in  a  perfect  prevision  of  whatever  his  people 
would  need,  that  in  Him  should  all  fulness  dwell.1 
In  Him  provision  was  made,  not  only  for  our  requi- 
site supplies  during  our  militant  state,  but  also  for 
our  safety  in  death,  and  our  happy  and  glorious  set- 
tlement in  heaven.      At  death,  we  fall  asleep  in 
Jesu*,"  and  our  ransomed  souls  become  associated 
with  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  ?*   and  at 
the  resurrection,  our  vile  body  shall  be  changed,  and 
fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body?  and  we  shall 
be  settled  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  that  eternal  life, 
which  has  no  dependence  upon  our  worthiness,  but 
is  t he  gift  of  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesuit  Christ.* 
Gospel-ministers,  moreover,  must  teach  the  obe- 
dience of  faith1 — that  obedience,  which  is  the  fruit 

m  John  i.  16.  n  Jas.  iv.  6.  °  Heb.  iv.  16.  ,PJohn  xv.  5.  1  Philip, 

iv.  13.    r  1  Sam.  vii.  12.    •  1  Cor.  xv.  10.  *  Col.  i.  19.   «  1  Thess. 

iv.  14.    w  Hcb.  xii.  23.    *  Philip,  iii.  21.  7  Rom.  vi.  23.    *  Ibid, 
xvi.  26. 


372  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [sER.    XI. 

and  evidence  of  a  living  faith.  The  faith  of  Godjs 
elect  distinguishes  its  subjects,  by  leading  them  to 
the  acknowledging  of  the  truth  which  is  after  godli- 
ness.9- It  is  that  faith,  which  God,  in  all  to  whom  he 
gives  it,  renders  effectual  to  the  purifying  of  their 
hearts  from  evil  motives,  as  well  as  from  legal  hopesb 
— that  faith,  which,  in  all  who  possess  it,  overcometh 
the  world,*  and  worketh,  not  by  terror,  but  by  loveA — 
love  to  Christ,  his  truth  and  his  church.  Loving 
Christ,  they  cheerfully  obey  him  ;  the  love  of  Christ 
constraineth  us  ;e — loving  his  truth,  they  abide  and 
walk  in  it;! — and,  loving  his  church,  they  desire 
to  dwell  in  it  all  the  days  of  their  life,  to  behold  the 
beauty  of  the  Lord,  and  to  inquire  in  his  temple.* 
The  obedience  of  faith  is  the  evidence  which  Christ 
requires  of  our  love  to  him  :  If  ye  love  me,  saith  he, 
keep  my  commandments  ;h  by  which  are  meant,  not 
only  his  gospel-ordinances,  but  also  all  his  gospel- 
injunctions,  respecting  holy  and  useful  living  ;  even 
all  chrislian  duties  comprehended  under  the  terms 
work  of  faith  and  labor  of  love.1  While,  therefore, 
the  ministers  of  Christ  should  constantly  remind  be- 
lievers of  gospel-promises,  to  promote  their  com- 
fort/ they  should,  with  equal  constancy,  remind 
them  of  gospel-precepts,  to  promote  their  obe- 
dience.1 *  But, 

a  Titus  i.  1.  b  Acts  xv.  9.  c  1  John  v.  4.  d  Gal.  v.  6. 
e2Cor.  v.  14.  f  2  John,  verses  4.  9.  ePsal.  xxvii.  4.  Comp: 
2  Cor.  viii.  5.  h  John  xiv.  15.  '  1  Thess.  i.  3.  Comp.  Gal.  vi. 
10.  Heb.  xiii.  16.  Titus,  ii.  11,  12.  k  Is.  xl.  1,  2.  Rom. 
viii.  28—39.  Eph.  i.  3.  2  Cor.  i.  20.  Philip,  iv.  19.  i  1  Tim. 
iv.  Titus  Hi.  1  Pet.  iv.  and  2  Pet.  i.  and  iii.  chapters. 

*  To  harmonize  God's  moral  requirements  of  mankind,  with 


SER.  XI.]       HIS  DEPORTMENT  AND  SERVICE.  373 

SECONDLY,  Offering  also  belonged  to  the  official 
work  of  the  Levitical  priests.  This  was  of  two 
kinds — incense  and  sacrifice. 

1.  Incense:  "  They  shall  put  incense  before  thee,'' 
that  is,  before  the  Lord ;  for  the  golden  altar,  upon 
which  they  were  to  put  the  incense,  though,  situated 
in  the  holy  place,  "without  the  vail,"  stood  imme- 
diately facing  the  ark,  (situated  in  the  most  holy 
place,  "within  the  vail,")  upon  the  lid  of  which, 
called  the  mercy-seat,  appeared  the  Shecheenah,  the 
symbol  of  the  divine  presence  :  and,  standing  before 
that,  it  was  said  to  be  before  the  Lord.  Levit.  xvi. 
18.f 

This  altar  has  commonly  been  considered  as  a 
type  of  Christ.  In  this  I  cannot  concur.  For  the 
altar  itself  became  defiled  by  the  sins  of  Israel,  and 
the  high-priest  was  required  to  make  an  annual 
atonement  for  it,  by  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices 
offered  on  the  day  of  expiation  ;m  but,  if  Christ 

his  sovereign  grace  in  the  effectual  calling  of  his  elect,  and  to  ex- 
hibit both  in  agreement  with  the  general  tenor  of  his  word,  are 
difficulties,  for  the  solution  of  which,  many  volumes  have  been 
written  by  the  most  distinguished  polemics.  To  reflecting  readers, 
therefore,  it  will  not  seem  strange,  if,  in  this  humble  effort  thereat, 
made  in  a  mere  branch  of  a  Sermon,  they  should  discover  many 
deficiencies  and  some  discrepancy.  Yet,  the  importance  of  any 
light  on  a  subject,  confessedly  much  embarrassed  with  knotty  ques- 
tions, it  is  hoped  will  plead  my  excuse  for  having  extended  this 
branch  of  the  discourse,  to  a  length  so  disproportionate  to  its  other 
members. 

f  See  Ser.  ix.  Note  on  p.  269,  and  that  on  pp.  278,  279.  Also 
Exo.  xxvi.  33 — 35.  and  Levit.  xvi.  2. 

m  Levit.  xvi.  18,  19.  33.  Comp.  Exo.  xxx.  10. 


374  THE    BLESSING    OF   LEVI.  [SER.    XI* 

himself  could  become  morally  defiled,  by  whom 
could  an  atonement  be  made  for  him  I  In  the  altar 
of  incense  therefore,  I  behold  a  figure  of  the  throne 
of  grace ;  which,  like  the  altar  of  incense,  by  the 
sins  of  national  Israelites,  becomes  defiled  by  the 
sins  of  spiritual  Israelites,  and  especially,  by  their 
irreverence,  legality,  insincerity,  and  wanderings  of 
thought  and  affection,  during  their  attempts  to  pray; 
but  for  which,  as  well  as  for  all  their  other  sins, 
Christ  made  an  atonement,  when  by  the  one  offering 
up  of  himself,  he  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are 
sanctified* 

That  the  altar  of  incense  typically  implied  a  Media- 
tor, is  indeed  evident ;  for,  in  this  relation  to  Israel,  the 
high-priest  officiated  before  it ;  burning  incense  there- 
on daily,  morning  and  evening — even  a  perpetual  in- 
cense  in  all  their  generations ;°  and  in  doing  which, 
he  typified  Christ,  the  Mediator  of  spiritual  Israel, 
in  whose  name  and  mediation,  believers,  in  all  their 
generations,  being  made  priests  unto  God,  present 
to  him  their  supplications  at  the  throne  of  grace, 
not  only  morning  and  evening,  but  at  all  times,  and 
find  a  gracious  audience  and  acceptance.1*  No  man, 
perhaps,  has  ever  understood  the  typical  design  of 
the  offering  of  incense  upon  the  golden  altar,  better 
than  David  did  ;  and  it  is  manifest  that  he  contem- 
plated it  as  an  emblem  of  prayer ;  for  addressing 
the  Lord,  he  said,  Let  my  prayer  be  set  forth  before 
thee  as  incense ;  and  the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  as 
the  evening  sacrifice.*  And  accordingly,  while  the 

*  Heb.  x.  14.    °  Exo.  xxx.  7,  8.      P  John  xvi.  23;  Rev.  i.  &. 

iPsal.  cili.  2. 


SKR.  XI.J      HIS  DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  375 

priest  was  burning  incense  in  the  holy  place  in  the 
temple,  "the  whole  multitude  of  the  people  were 
praying  without,"  in  the  court  Israel/ 

The  high-priest,  however,  burnt  incense  also  in 
the  holy  of  holies,  within  the  vail  ;s  in  which  he  was  a 
type  of  Christ,  who  entered  into  heaven  itself,  of 
which  that  most  holy  place  was  a  figure,  there  to  ap- 
pear before  God  for  us,  and  that  as  our  intercessors 
There,  with  the  much  incense  of  his  acknowledged 
merits,  he  perfumes  and  recommends  the  prayers  of 
the  saints,  and  renders  them  odors  before  the 
throne." 

Moreover,  on  an  extraordinary  occasion,  when 
a  pestilence  had  begun  to  rage  in  the  camp  of  Israel, 
the  high-priest,  by  divine  order,  and  in  great  haste, 
took  jire  from  the  attar,  that  of  burnt-offerings,  and 
kindled  incense  in  the  midst  of  the  congregation ; 
whereby  the  plague  was  stayed.w  Thus,  when  the 
church,  on  account  of  the  prevalence  of  heresy,  or 
immorality,  or  schism,  among  her  members,  is  in  im- 
minent danger,  Christ  interposes  his  mediation,  which, 
in  virtue  of  his  vicarious  sufferings,  typified  by  the 
fire  taken  from  the  altar,  is  ever  effectual  on  her  be- 
half. Hence,  the  threatened  judgment  is  averted, 
or,  if  begun,  it  is  stayed.  See  Dan.  xii.  1.  Zech. 
iii.  2.  1  John  ii.  12.* 

r  Luke  i.  9, 10.  •*  Levit.  xvi.  12,  13.  *  Heb.  ix.  24;  u  Rev.  v. 
8.  viii.  3, 4.  w  Num.  xvi.46 — 48. 

*  In  regard  to  the  offering  of  incense,  it  may  be  useful,  by  the 
way,  to  remark  the  following  particulars :  to  wit, 

I.  That  [wherever  presented,  it  was  to  be  burnt;  and  that  the 
fire  for  this  purpose,  though  the  injunction  is  not  in  every  instance 

50 


376  THE    BLESSING  OF   LEVI.  [sER.  XI. 

But  the  evangelical  instruction,  directly  to  be  ga- 
thered from  this  type,  is — 1.  That,  as  the  Levitical 

specified,  was  always  required  to  be  taken  from  off  the  altar ; 
[see  Exo.  xxx.  7,  8.  Levit.  xvi.  12.  Num.  xvi.  46.  and  2  Chron. 
xiii.  11  ;]  by  which  altar  is  meant  that  whereon  the  sin-offer- 
ings were  burnt ;  hence  called  the  altar  of  burnt- offerings.  See 
Exo.  xxxviii.  1.  and  xl.  6.  29.  Hereby  we  are  taught,  that  when- 
ever or  wherever  we  pray,  the  success  of  our  petitions  depends  up- 
on the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  who  was  exposed  to  the  fire  of  incensed 
Justice  due  to  us  for  our  sins  ;  yea,  that  the  intercession  of  Christ 
himself  in  our  behalf,  derives  its  efficacy  from  his  vicarious  suffer- 
ings in  our  law-place :  he  is  our  availing  Advocate,  because  he  is 
our  propitiatory  sacrifice  ;  1  John  ii.  1,2.  By  this  type  we  are  also 
taught,  that  to  pray  with  fervor  and  hope,  we  must  first,  like  the 
priests,  go  to  the  altar  of  burnt-offering;  that  is,  meditate  on  the 
sufferings  of  Christ,  as  our  substitute.  Here,  having  our  hearts 
softened  by  the  fire  of  the  cross — our  minds  humbled  under  a 
sense  of  our  sins  for  which  Christ,  in  that  fire,  atoned — and  our 
faith  strengthened  by  the  consideration  of  the  greatness  and  effi- 
cacy of  his  sacrifice — our  mouths  become  filled  with  arguments — 
arguments  drawn  from  his  person,  his  offices,  his  relations,  his  obe- 
dience, and  his  death — and  especially,  from  his  resurrection  and 
ascension  ;  whereby  the  atonement  which  he  made  for  the  sins  of 
his  people,  was  recognized  in  heaven,  as  satisfactory  to  divine  Jus- 
tice. Thus  we  come  to  have  boldness  and  access  with  confidence, 
by  the  faith  of  him  ;  knowing  that  we  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the 
blood  of  Jesus.  Eph.  iii.  12.  Heb.  x.  19. 

2.  That  incense  was  never  burnt,  either  on  the  golden  altar  or 
within  the  vail,  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  incensed  Justice.  This 
could  be  done  only  by  sacrifice,  and  that  such  as  God  had  ap- 
pointed. Hence,  let  us  learn  never  to  think  of  our  prayers  at  the 
throne  of  grace,  nor  even  of  the  intercession  of  Christ  for  us  in 
heaven,  as  the  meritorious  cause  of  our  pardon ;  but  of  our  prayers, 
as  the  ordinary  means,  and  of  the  intercession  of  Christ,  as  the  in- 
stituted medium,  through  which  we  receive  forgiveness,  as  an  effect 
of  that  peace,  which  He,  as  the  appointed  and  accepted  sflert- 
fice,  made  for  us,  by  the  blood  of  his  cross.  Col.  i.  20.  Accord- 
ingly no  burnt-sacrifice  was  to  be  offered  on  the  altar  of  incense ; 


SER.  XI.]        HIS  DEPORTMENT  AND   SERVICE.  377 

priests  were  required  daily  and  repeatedly  to  put  in- 
cense upon  the  golden  altar;  so  gospel-ministers 
should  be  often  and  with  sacred  fervor,  engaged  at 
the  throne  of  grace.  And — 2.  That,  in  their  preach- 
ing and  exhortations,  they  should  labor  to  excite 

Exo.  xxx.  9.  The  place  appointed  for  this,  was  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering.  Exo.  xl.  29.  How  abhorent  to  God,  then,  must  be  the 
Romish  mass,  in  which  it  is  pretended,  that  the  "  elements  of  the 
eucharist,  transubstantiated  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  are 
offered  as  an  expiatory  sacrifice  for  the  quick  and  dead." 

3.  No  strange  incense  was  allowed  to  be  offered  on  the  golden 
altar ;  Exo.  xxx.  9.     By  such  incense,  is  meant  any  that  was  not 
prepared  according  to  the  divine  prescription,  given  in  the  same 
chapter ;  see  ver.  34 — 38 ;  also  any  that  was  kindled  with  strange 
fire — fire  not  taken  from  the  altar  of  burnt-offering.  Levit.  x.  1. 
Such  are  prayers  not  dictated  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  maketh  in- 
tercession for  the  saints  according  to  the  will  of  God ;  Rom.  viii. 
26,  27  ;    and  which,  consequently,  are  not  made  with  fiducial  re- 
liance on  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for  acceptance.     Such  prayers  ob- 
tain no  audience  in  heaven  ;  for  it  is  only  through  Christ,  and  by 
the  Spirit,  that  we  have  access  to  the  Father.     Eph.  ii.   18. 

4.  Both  meat-offerings  and  drink-offerings,  were  excluded  from 
the  altar  of  incense  ;  Exo.  xxx.  9.     Thus  the  prayers  of  those  who 
expect  to  live  by  the  merit  of  them,  are  rejected  at  the  throne  of 
grace.     Is.  i.  15.  Ixv.  5.  Luke  xviii.  9 — 14.     The  priests,  recollect, 
had  their  living,  not  from  the  altar  of  incense,  but  from  the  altar 
of  burnt-offering.  Levit.  vi.  8 — 29.  vii.  1 — 9.  Comp.    1  Cor.  ix. 
13.  x.  18.     So  believers  live,  not  on  their  prayers,  or  by  the  merit 
of  them  ;  but  on  Christ  crucified,  received  and  trusted  in  by  faith. 
Gal.  ii.  20.     The  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ,  so  received,  are  meat 
and  drink  indeed.  John  vi.  55.  Comp.  Heb.  xiii.  10.     And, 

5.  That  it  pertained  to  none  but  priests,  to  offer  incense  upon 
the  golden  altar.     This  is  evident  from  the  case  of  Korah  and  his 
company,  and  that  of  Uzziah  the  king.  Num.  xvi.  40.  and  2  Chron. 
xxvi.  16 — 21.     So  the  throne  of  grace,  (be  it  recollected,)  is  ac- 
cessible to  none  but  believers  in  Christ;    by  whom  they  are  made 
priests  unto  God ;   Rev.  i.  6.     No  man,  saith  Christ,  cometh  unto 
the  Father,  but  by  me.     John  xiv.  6. 


378  THE   BLESSING   OF  LEVI.  [SER.  XI* 

and  encourage  their  believing  hearers,  to  be  in  like 
manner  engaged  at  the  same  throne.     Such  a  min- 
ister, and  most  eminently  such,  was  the  Great  High- 
Priest  of  our  prof  ession.     Christ,  while  he  taberna- 
cled on  earth,  spent  much  of  his  time  in  prayer.  * 
As  man,  he  prayed  for  himself  ;y  and,  as  Mediator, 
he  prayed  for  his  people. *     And,  as  in  these  charac- 
ters,  he  prayed  much,  so,  in   the  character  of  a 
teacher,  he  frequently  and  pathetically  excited  and  en- 
couraged his  disciples  thereto,  and  gave  them  many 
directions  therein.a     Such  ministers,  too,  were  his 
apostles.     They,  as  appears  by  their  History  and 
Epistles,  were  much  employed  in  offering  the  in- 
cense of  prayer,  both  socially,5  and  privately  ;c  and, 
like  their  blessed  Master,  in  faithfully  exciting  and 
encouraging  believers  to  pray,  and  in  giving  them 
directions    for  the  acceptable  performance  of  this 
duty.d     In  these  exhortations  and  directions  given 
by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  in  relation  to  prayer,  we, 
my  Christian  hearers,  are  all  deeply  interested.     And 
being  thus  exhorted,  encouraged  and  directed,  Let 
us  come  boldly  unto  the  throne  of  grace,  that,  offer- 
ing  there  our  incense  of  prayer,  we  may   obtain 
mercy,  and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need.e 

The  priests,  however,  were  to  offer  to  the  Lord, 
not  only  incense,  but  likewise, 

*  Matth.  xiv.  23.  Markxiv.  46.  Luke  vi.  12.  7  Psal.  xxii.  Matth. 
xxvi.  36—44.  Heb.  v.  7:  z  John  xvii.  a  Matth.  vii.  7 — 11.  xxvi. 
41.  Luke  xviii.  1—8.  Matth.  v.  44.  vi.  5—15.  b  Acts  i.  12—14. 
ii.  42.  iv.  31.  vi.  4.  c  Acts  iii.  1.  ix.  11.  x.  11.  xxii.  17.  d  Col.  Hi. 
17  Rom.viii.  26,  27.  Jas.  v.16.  1  Pet.  iii.  12.  Philip,  iv.  6.  1  Thess. 
v.  17.  2  Thess.  iii.  1.  Eph.  vi.  18.  1  Tim*  ii.  1, 2.  1  Pet.  iv.  7.  Jude, 
Ver.20.  e  Heb.  iv.  16. 


SER.  XI.]        HIS   DEPORTMENT    AND    SERVICE.  379 

2.  Sacrifice :  "  And  whole  burnt-offering  upon 
thine  altar."  In  the  order  of  time,  the  sacrifice 
was  to  precede  the  incense,  and  is  more  commonly 
mentioned  before  it.  See  Levit.  xvi.  11 — 13,  and 
2  Chron.  xiii.  11.  This  order,  too,  was  required,  by 
divine  Justice,  both  in  the  type  and  in  the  antitype ; 
for,  as  the  acceptance  of  the  incense  depended  upon 
the  prior  acceptance  of  a  sacrifice  ;  (Psal.  Ixvi.  15.) 
so  the  success  of  Christ's  intercession  for  his  people, 
and,  of  course,  the  success  of  their  supplications  in 
his  name,  were,  in  the  economy  of  grace,  made 
dependent  upon  the  antecedent  acceptance  of  his 
sacrifice  in  their  behalf,  either  as  stipulated  in  the 
covenant,  or  as  actually  offered  upon  the  cross.  See 
Is.  xlii.  21.  liii.  6.  11.  Rom.  v.  1.  10.  Col.  1.  20. 
Nevertheless,  in  noticing  these  articles,  as  mentioned 
in  the  text,  I  thought  proper  to  follow  the  natural 
order  of  the  words. 

Answerably,  then,  to  the  whole  burnt-sacrifice) 

1.  Christ  offered  his  whole  human  nature,  soul  and 
body,  as  a  sacrifice  for  all  the  sins  of  all  whom  he 
represented.     For,  though  he  was  put  to  death  only 
in  the  flesh,  his  holy  soul  also,  under  a  sense  of  the 
curse,  the  penalty  of  the  law,  due  to  his  people,  was 
exceeding  sorrowful,  it  being  filled  and  overwhelmed 
with   the   bitterest  anguish,   and   which  he   knew 
could  only  terminate  in  its  seperation  from  his  body. 
In  a  word,  he  gave  himself  for  us,  and  suffered  the 
just  for  the  unjust.{ 

2.  His  ministers  should  preach  him  as  such ;  to 
wit,  as  a  whole  and  sufficient  sacrifice  for  sin ;  not 

f  Matth.  xxvi.  38. 1  Pet.  iii.  18. 


380  THE   BLESSING   OP   LEV1.  [sER.  XI. 

knowing,  that  is,  not  making  known  any  thing  among 
sinners,  as  a  ground  of  their  hope,  save  Jesus  Christ 
and  him  crucified*  They  should  also  preach  him 
in  his  whole  character ;  showing  from  the  Scriptures, 
that,  in  his  divine  nature,  he  thought  it  not  robery  to 
be  equal  with  God,  that  is,  the  Fatherh — that,  in  his 
human  nature,  he  was  holy,  harmless,  undefiled, — 
that,  as  the  Substitute  and  Representative  of  the 
elect,  he  was  made  under  the  law,  and,  for  them, 
magnified  it,  in  his  perfect  life,  and  made  it  hon- 
orable, by  enduring  its  righteous  penalty,  in  his  vi- 
carious death1 — and  that,  being  raised  and  glorified, 
he  is  proclaimed  the  only  Head  of  the  churchf  and 
the  final  Judge  of  the  world.1  As  such,  therefore, 

3.  He  should  be  received,  trusted  in,  and  acknow- 
ledged. Without  attempting  to  add  any  thing  to 
his  whole  sacrifice,  or,  to  his  perfect  righteousness, 
we  must,  fas  guilty  and  naked,  rely  exclusively  on 
the  former  for  pardon,  and,  on  the  latter  for  justifi- 
cation, before  God.  And,  while  we  trust  in  him  as 
our  complete  REDEEMER  and  SAVIOUR,  we  should  ac- 
knowledge him  as  our  rightful  SOVEREIGN,  and  fol- 
low him,  as  our  revealed  GUIDE  and  EXAMPLE  ;  for 
he  is  the  LEADER  and  COMMANDER  of  the  people ; 
and  hath  left  us  an  example,  that  we  should  follow 
his  steps.  Is.  Iv.  4.  1  Pet.  ii.  21. 

To  conclude.  By  the  light  of  this  subject,  it  must 
be  evident, 

1.  That  impenitent  sinners  have  no  reason  to  be 
offended  at  gospel  ministers,  when  they  pronounce 

e  1  Cor.  ii.  2.  h  Philip,  ii,  6.  *  Gal.  iv.  4.  5.  Is.  xlii.  21.  Gal.  iii. 
13.    k  Eph.  i.  19—23.    Col.  ii.  19.      l  John  v.  22. 27.  Acts  x.  42. 


SER.  XI.]        HIS   DEPORTMENT   AND    SERVICE.  381 

them,  as  tried  by  the  standard  of  God's  perfect  law, 
unclean  and  unrighteous ;  and,  as  such,  condemned 
already.  We  only  proclaim  to  them,  what  God  in 
his  word  declares  them  to  be.a  We  cannot  altar  his 
law,  nor  better  the  case  of  those  who  are  found  un- 
der its  condemnatory  sentence.  To  cry  peace,  peace 
to  them,  in  a  state  wherein  there  is  no  peace,  but 
certain  destruction,11  would  serve  only  to  deceive 
their  precious  souls,  and  to  bring  guilt  on  our  own. 
See  Ezek.  iii.  18,  19.  Besides,  our  addresses  to 
them,  however  pointed  and  alarming — our  descrip- 
tions of  their  guilt  and  danger,  however  vivid  and 
fearful,  are  all  accompanied  with  desires  and  prayers 
to  God,  for  their  conversion  and  salvation.0  There 
is,  we  know,  a  peradventure  that  God  will  give  them 
repentance  to  the  acknowledging  of  the  truth;*  and 
therefore  we  preach  to  them,  hoping  and  praying 
that  our  labors  may  be  the  means,  in  the  hand  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  of  turning  them  from  the  error  of  their 
way,  and  of  exciting  them,  in  view  of  the  wrath  to 
come,  to  flee  for  refuge  to  Christ  Jesus,  who  came  in- 
to the  world  to  save  sinners,  even  the  chief;  and  who 
is  able  also,  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come 
unto  God  by  him.  1  Tim.  i.  15.  Heb.  vii.  25. 

2.  How  mild,  compared  with  the  government  of 
national  Israel,  is  the  discipline  of  the  gospel-church. 
Under  the  former,  an  offending  Israelite  was  liable 
to  fines  and  scourging — yea,  in  many  cases,  to  death 
itself,  and  that  by  stoning,*  or  burning,f  or  by  the 

aPsal..  xiv,  1—3.  John  iii.  18.  b  Jer.   vi.  14:    1  Thess.  v.  3. 

•  Rom.  x.  1,  2.  Cor.  v.  11.  Col.  i.  28.  1  Tim.  iv.  16.  d2  Tim.  ii. 

25.  «  Num.  xv.  35,  36.  Deut.  xiii:  6—11.  f  Josh.  vii.  25.  Ltvit. 
xx.  14.  xxi.  9. 


382  THE   BLESSING  OF  LEVI.  [SEE.  XI. 

sword  of  a  brother,  companion  or  friend.*  But  un- 
der the  latter,  a  delinquent  is  only  to  be  admon- 
ished* rebuked^  and,  at  most,  to  be  put  away.k 
Moreover,  a  member  of  the  gospel-Israel  having  been 
overtaken  in  a  fault — nay,  even  one  having  grossly 
fallen,  is,  upon  satisfactory  evidence  of  repentance 
and  reformation,  to  be  restored  to  the  fellowship 
and  communion  of  the  church.1  These  things,  how- 
ever, relate  only  to  church-discipline.  Members  of 
churches,  if  they  violate  civil  law,  must,  like  other 
men,  be  accountable  at  the  bar  of  civil  justice;  and 
hypocrites  in  Zion,  dying  such,  must  finally  perish 
with  a  world  that  lieth  in  wickedness.^  And, 

3.  Persons  standing  in  church-relation,  if  they 
walk  disorderly,  have  no  just  cause  of  complaint 
when  gospel-discipline  is  exercised  toward  them — 
and  especially,  when  they  consider  the  lenient  mea- 
sures and  salutary  objects  of  this  discipline,  and 
that  the  ministers  and  members  of  gospel-churches, 
like  the  priests  and  Levites  of  ancient  Israel,  are 
bound  to  observe  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  to 
keep  his  covenant. 

s  Exo.  xxxii.  27.  hRom.  xv.  14.  1  Thess.  v.  12.  2  Thess.  iii. 
15.  *  Luke  xvii.  3,  4.  1  Tim.  v.  20:  Titus  i.  13.  Rev.  iii.  19. 
M  Cor.  v.  13.  »Gal.  vi.  1.  2  Cor.  ii.  6—11.  m  Is.  xxxiii.  14. 
Matth.  xxiv.  48—51.  1  John  v.  19. 


SERMON  XII* 

LEVFS    BLESSING    CONTINUED. 


DEUT»  xxxiii.  8— 11.—  And  of  Levi  he  said,  Let  thy  Thummitn 
and  thy  Urim  be  with  thy  Holy  One,  whom  thou  didst  prove  at 
Massah,  and  with  whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters  of  Meri- 
bah  ;  who  said  unto  his  father  and  to  his  mother,  I  have  not  seen 
him  ;  neither  did  he  acknowledge  his  brethren,  nor  knew  his  own 
children:  for  they  have  observed  thy  word,  and  kept  thy  covenant. 
They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy  judgments,  and  Israel  thy  law  :  they 
shall  put  incense  before  thee,  and  whole  burnt-sacrifice  upon  thine 
altar.  Bless,  LORD,  his  substance,  and  accept  the  work  of  his 
hands :  smite  through  the  loins  of  them  that  rise  against  him,  and 
of  them  that  hate  him,  that  they  rise  not  again. 


OF  this  rich  and  diversified  blessing,  all  that  re- 
mains to  be  considered,  is  expressed  in  the  eleventh 
verse,  which  reads  thus  ;  Bless,  Lord,  his  substance, 
and  accept  the  work  of  his  hands :  smite  through 
the  loins  of  them  that  rise  against  him,  and  of  them 
that  hate  him,  that  they  rise  not  again. 

In  these  words,  Moses,  on  behalf  of  Levi,  prayed 
for  three  things ;  viz. 

For  a  blessing  on  his  possessions, 

— The  acceptance  of  his  services,  and 

— The  effectual  conquest  of  his  enemies. 

1.  For  a  blessing  on  his  possessions :  Bless,  Lord, 
his  substance. 

This  was  peculiar.  For,  in  the  division  of  the 
land  of  Canaan  among  the  Israelites,  no  share  was 
assigned  to  the  tribe  of  Levi :  The  Lord  spake 

51 


384  LEVl'g   SUBSTANCE   BLESSED          [SER.  XII 

unto  Aaron,  who  stood  at  the  head  of  this  tribe, 
saying,  Thou  shall  have  no  inheritance  in  their  land, 
the  land  of  Israel,  neither  shalt  thou  have  any  part 
among  them,  that  is,  of  the  land,  which  was  to  be 
divided  by  lot  among  the  other  tribes :  It  shall  be 
a  statute  for  ever  throughout  your  generations,  that 
among  the  children  of  Israel  they  (the  Levites)  have 
no  inheritance.* 

For  this  exclusion  of  the  Levites  from  any  share 
in  the  land  given  to  their  nation,  two  reasons  are  ap- 
parent on  the  face  of  the  history. 

1.  Their  employment ;  which  did  not  admit  of 
their  cultivating  fields  and  vineyards,*  or  engaging 
in  secular  pursuits  of  any  kind.  The  Levites,  said 
the  Lord,  shall  do  the  service  of  the  Tabernacle  of 
the  congregation,  and,  shall  bear  their  iniquity, 
their  guilt  and  punishment,  if  they  neglected  the 
service,  required  of  them,  either  stated  or  occasional.1* 
In  this  service,  the  high-priest  was  to  have  the  in- 
ferior priests  and  all  the  common  Levites  united 
with  him  and  under  him,  to  serve  him,  and,  with  him, 
to  serve  the  Lord.  So  said  God  to  Aaron: — Thy 
brethren  also  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  the  tribe  of  thy 
father,  bring  thou  with  thee,  that  they  may  be  joined 
unto  thee*  and  minister  unto  thee :  but  thou  and 
thy  sons  (the  priests)  with  thee  shall  minister  be- 
fore the  tabernacle  of  witness.^  And  they  (the  Le- 

•  Num.  xviii.  20.  23.    b  Ibid.  ver.  23. 

*  Joined  unto  thee]  Herein  there  is  a  happy  allusion  to  the 
name  of  their  patriarch ;  for  'iS  Levi  signifies  joined.  See  Gen. 
zxix.  34. 

t  By  this  tabernacle  is  meant  the  holy  of  holies  ;  called  the 
tabernacle  of  witness,  or  of  testimony,  because  within  it  stood  the 


SER.  XII.]      AND    HIS   ENEMIES  VANQUISHED.  385 

vites)  shall  keep  thy  charge,  whatever  he  committed 
to  their  charge,  or  charged  them  to  do.  And  I,  be- 
hold, I  have  taken  your  brethren  the  Levites  from 
among  the  children  of  Israel;  to  you  they  are  given 
as  a  gift  for  the  Lord,  to  do  the  service  of  the  Taber- 
nacle of  the  congregation.* 

2.  The  provision  otherwise  made  for  their  sup- 
port and  accommodation.  This  was  such  as  rendered 
husbandry,  and  therefore  farms  and  vineyards,  un- 
necessary for  them.  To  the  high-priest,  for  him- 
self, for  his  sons  in  the  priest's  office,  and  for  all  his 
family,  belonged  a  large  portion  of  all  the  obla- 
tions or  sacrifices — all  the  heave  and  wave  offerings 
— all  the  first-fruits  of  every  kind — every  thing 
absolutely  devoted  in  Israel — and  the  first-lings  of 
all  animals — all  these  were  given  to  him,  his  sons  and 
his  daughters,  by  a  statute  for  ever ;  that  is,  they 
were  assigned  to  the  high-priest  for  the  use  of  him- 
self and  his  family  as  long  as  the  Aaronic  order 
should  be  continued.d  And,  to  the  inferior  priests 
and  common  Levites  also,  belonged  an  ample  sup- 
port, even  a  tenth  of  all  the  increase  of  Canaan : 
Behold,  said  the  Lord,  /  have  given  the  children  of 
Levi  all  the  tenth  in  Israel,  for  an  inheritance,  in- 
stead of  a  share  in  the  land,  for  the  service,  which 

Jlrk  which  contained  the  tables  of  the  law.  Deut.  x.  4,  5.  Comp. 
Exo.  xxv.  21.  xxxviii.  21.  And  thougli  none  but  the  high-priest, 
and  he  only  on  the  day  of  atonement,  might  enter  that  awful  apart- 
ment and  officiate  immediately  at  the  mercy-seat,  yet  the  other 
priests  also  ministered  before  it,  when  they  officiated  at  the  golden 
altar,  which  stood  in  the  holy  place,  opposite  to  it,  and  was  sepa- 
rated from  it  only  by  the  vail.  See  Exo.  xxvii.  21.  xl.  21. 

«  Num.  xviii.  2—6.     d  Num.  xviii.  S— 19-. 


386  LEVl's    SUBSTANCE    BLESSED  [sER.  XII. 

they  serve,  even  the  service  of  the  Tabernacle  of  the 
congregation* 

Besides,  although  the  tribe  of  Levi  were  to  have 
no  part  in  the  original  division  of  the  land ;  yet  the 
other  tribes  were  divinely  ordered  to  assign  to 
them  by  gift,  certain  portions  for  cities,  that  is, 
villages  for  them  and  their  families  to  dwell  in,  with 
suburbs  for  their  cattle,  &c.f  In  some  instances  too, 
in  the  course  of  Providence,  fields  devoted  fell  into 
their  possession.  Moreover,  they  might  have  prop- 
erty by  donation,  by  legacy,  or  by  purchase,  as  had 
Jeremiah  and  Barnabas,  who  were  both  of  the  tribe 
of  Levi.e 

But  what  chiefly  enriched  and  distinguished  Aaron 
and  all  the  priests  and  Levites,  was  that  God  himself 
was  in  their  portion :  /,  said  he  to  Aaron,  as  the  re- 
presentative of  the  rest,  /  am  thy  part  and  thine  in- 
heritance among  the  children  of  Israel* 

Now,  the  prayer  of  Moses,  that  the  Lord  would 
bless  the  substance  of  the  Levites,  may  be  under- 
stood as  a  prayer, 

1 .  That  he  would  make  their  portion  abundant  or 
sufficient ;    for  it  was  to  come  by  such  means  as 
rendered  it  wholly  and  evidently  dependent  on  his 
will  and  providence.     And, 

2.  That  he  would  make  this  abundance  or  suffi- 
ciency a  blessing  to  them  ;  and  so  give  them  a  com- 
fortable as  well  as  a  plentiful  subsistence  ;  for  other- 
wise even  their  blessings  might  have  involved  a 
curse,  as  did  those  of  the  wicked  priests  in  the  days 
of  the  latter  prophets.1 

e  Numb.  ver.  7.  21.  f  Ibid.  xxxv.  1 — 5.  Lev.  xxvii.  21.  s  Jer. 
i.  1.  xxxii.  29.  Acts  iv.  36,  37.  b  Num.  xviii.  20,  *  Mai.  ii.  1, 2 


SER.  XII.]       AND    HIS    ENEMIES   VANQUISHED.  387 

The  things  mentioned  concerning  the  possessions 
of  the  priests  and  Levites,  were  doubtless  generally 
typical ;  but  satisfactorily  to  apply  them  is  consider- 
ably difficult.  In  making  the  attempt,  let  us  notice, 

1.  Those  respecting  the  high-priest. 

Had  the  high-priest  himself  no  inheritance  in  the 
earthly  Canaan  ?  How,  in  this,  could  he  typify  Christ, 
who  is  heir  of  all  things  ?  Besides,  the  difficulty 
seems  increased  when  we  recollect  that  Canaan  is 
called  Immanuel's  land.k  Neverthelss,  this  circum- 
stance in  the  condition  of  the  high-priest,  may  re- 
mind us — 1.  That  Christ,  as  man,  neither  owned 
nor  claimed  any  portion  of  this  earth :  The  Son 
of  man,  said  he,  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head.* 
And — 2.  That  as  a  king,  his  subjects  are  not  of  an 
earthly  or  worldly  character  :  My  kingdom,  said  he, 
is  not  of  this  world.™  The  riches  of  the  glory  of 
his  inheritance  is  in  the  saints.* 

Was  the  high-priest  charged  and  privileged  to 
bring  all  his  brethren,  that  is,  all  the  Levites,  (priests 
and  others,)  into  the  sanctuary,  to  minister  to  him, 
and  with  him  to  wait  upon  God  1  Let  us  be  hereby 
reminded,  that  the  elect  are  all  of  the  same  chpsen 
family  with  Christ,  and  therefore  his  brethren ;°  and 
that,  as  Mediator,  he  is  officially  authorized  and 
charged  by  his  heavenly  Father,  to  bring  them  all, 
both  into  a  state  of  grace  here  and  into  a  state  of 
glory  hereafter.  The  obstacles,  in  reference  to  his 
Father's  law  and  justice,  he  has  removed  through 
his  obedience  unto  death?  Herein  he  magnified  the 

k  Is.  viii.  8.  l  Matth.  viii.  20.  m  John  xviii.  36.  n  Eph.  i.  18. 
°Heb.  ii.  11.  P  Philip,  ii.  8. 


388  LEVl'S   StTBSTANCE   BLESSED  [sER.   XII, 

law  and  made  it  honorable ;  and  suffered  the  just  for 
the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God.q  But 
our  calling,  as  well  as  our  redemption,  was,  by 
covenant-arrangement,  confided  to  him.  Hence, 
believers  are  styled,  The  called  of  Jesus  Christ.* 
And  having  spoken  of  his  called  sheep  among  the 
Jews,  he  said,  other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of 
this  fold ;  meaning  elect  Gentiles :  them  also  I  must 
bring;  and  (in  order  thereto)  they  shall  hear  my 
voice ;  and  there  shall  be  onefold,  one  gospel-church 
state,  including  believing  Gentiles  with  believing 
Jews,  and  one  shepherd,  even  himself.'  Nor  may 
he  abandon  them  after  called  ;  but  is  charged  with 
the  safe-keeping  of  their  souls,  and  with  the  glori- 
ous resurrection  of  their  bodies.  At  their  conver- 
sion, they  are  returned  to  him  as  the  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  their  souls;  and  this,  saith  he,  is  the  Fa- 
ther's will  who  hath  sent  me,  that  of  all  which  he 
hath  given  me  I  should  lose  nothing,  but  should 
raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day.* 

The  portion,  too,  which  fell  to  the  high-priest, 
suggests  an  important  thought.  Was  he  to  share 
largely  in  all  the  oblations  or  sacrifices  offered  to 
God  ?  How  much  more,  does  the  Lord  Jesus,  our 
divine  and  adorable  High-priest,  share  in  all  the 
spiritual  sacrifices  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  offered 
by  the  saints.  In  offering  these,  both  on  earth  and 
in  heaven,  they  were  revealed  to  John,  as  standing 
before  the  throne  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  with 
white  robes,  and  palms  in  their  hands,  and  crying 

1 1s.  xlii.  21.  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  r  Rom.  i.  6.  •  John  x.  16.  Com. 
Eph.  ii.  14.  19.  iii.  6.  1  Pet.  ii.  25.  * 1  Pet.  ii.  25.  John  vi.  39. 
x.28. 


8KR.   XII.]      AND   HIS   ENEMIES  VANQUISHED.  389 

with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  "  Salvation  to  our  God 
who  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb"* 

2.  Those  respecting  the  ordinary  priests. 

Like  them,  gospel-ministers  (of  whom  they  were 
typical)  are  required  to  give  themselves  wholly  to 
their  official  work.w  Like  them,  therefore,  they  can- 
not, consistently  with  their  sacred  ministry,  cultivate 
fields  and  vineyards  for  their  support ;  and  accord- 
ingly, for  them,  as  for  the  priests,  God  has  made  no 
provision,  that  by  virtue  of  their  office  they  should 
be  entitled  to  landed  estates.  For  although,  like  the 
priests,  they  may  lawfully  have  land,  by  donation  or 
legacy,  or  by  means  thus  falling  into  their  hands, 
they  may  purchase  land,  as  Jeremiah,  though  a 
priest  as  well  as  a  prophet,  purchased  the  field  of 
his  uncles's  son  in  Anathoth  ;x  yet,  nowhere  in  the 
New-Testament,  is  it  commanded  or  even  suggested 
that  gospel-churches  should  thus  enrich  their  pastors, 
as  a  compensation  for  their  services.  Nevertheless, 
as  God  expressly  enjoined,  that  all  the  other  tribes, 
in  proportion  to  their  respective  possessions,  should 
cede  to  the  Levites  cities  to  dwell  in,  with  suburbs 
for  their  cattle,  and  alloted  to  them  and  their  house- 
holds an  ample  supply  of  provisions,  by  tithes,  offer- 
ings and  first-fruits  ;  so  He  has  plainly  revealed  it 
to  be  the  duty  of  gospel-churches,  according  to  their 
circumstances,  to  provide  for  their  pastors  and  their 
families,  if  they  have  any.  Toward  this,  what  is 
commonly  called  a  parsonage,  a  tenement  owned 
by  a  church  for  the  use  of  her  pastor,  is  very  con- 
venient— especially  one  adapted  to  a  country  situa- 
tion, where  a  minister  needs  to  keep  a  horse  and 

«  Rev.  vii.  10.    *  Acts  vi.  4.  1  Tim.  iv.  15.    *  Jer.  xxxii.  9,  &c. 


390  LEVIES   SUBSTANCE*  BLESSED  [sER,  XII. 

some  other  animals.  Country-churches,  therefore, 
especially,  would  do  well,  if  they  can  afford  it,  to 
provide  such  accommodations  for  their  pastors,  or  to 
enable  them  to  hire  such  for  themselves.  It  should 
be  recollected,  however,  that  pastors  of  churches, 
like  the  Levitical  priests,  need  not  only  habitations 
for  themselves  and  their  families,  but  also,  at  least, 
food  and  raiment  convenient  for  them ;  and  that 
gospel-churches,  like  the  tribes  of  Israel,  should,  by 
their  liberality,  enable  those  whose  lives  are  devoted 
to  their  service,  to  procure  for  themselves  and  fami- 
lies, these  requisites  to  comfort  and  decency.  This 
is  reducing  the  expectations  of  gospel-ministers  to 
the  mere  necessaries  of  life.  But  are  they  not,  from 
the  churches  they  serve,  entitled  to  more  1  As  their 
ministry  is  not,  like  that  of  the  priests,  hereditary, 
and,  as  usually  they  have  no  estates  to  leave  to  their 
children,  should  they  not  be  enabled  to  give  them 
the  requisite  opportunities  for  acquiring  a  good 
education,  and  the  knowledge  of  such  employments, 
professional,  mercantile  or  mechanical,  as  they  sever- 
ally choose — that  so,  by  industry  and  economy,  they 
might  obtain  an  honest  living  and  a  reputable  stand- 
ing in  society  1 

That  men  called  of  God  to  devote  their  whole 
time  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  are  entitled  to 
a  comfortable  maintenance  from  those  they  serve, 
is  evident  from  the  observations  of  Paul  in  relation 
to  this  matter.  He,  it  is  true,  for  reasons  which  he 
specified,  declined  such  support  for  himself;  yet,  by 
various  allusions  and  appropriate  similies,  he  most 
clearly  and  forcibly  illustrated  the  duty  of  churches 
to  furnish  it,  and  the  right  of  ministers  to  receive  it. 


SER.  XII.]       AND    HIS    ENEMIES    VANQUISHED.  391 

Are  ministers  soldiers  1  Who,  asks  the  apostle,  goeth 
a  warfare  any  time  at  his  own  charges  ?  Are  they 
instrumental  in  planting  or  increasing  churches, 
which  are  comparable  to  vineyards  I  Who,  inquires 
he,  planteth  a  vineyard,  and  eateth  not  of  the  fruit 
thereof '?  Are  they  feeders  of  their  respective  flocks, 
over  the  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  them  over- 
seers 1  Who,  demands  he,feedeth  a  flock,  and  eateth 
not  of  the  milk  of  the  flock  ?  Suggesting  that  faith- 
ful ministers,  in  studying  the  Scriptures,  and  in  open- 
ing up  and  preaching  the  truths  contained  in  them 
to  their  hearers,  resemble  oxen,  employed  in  plow- 
ing the  ground  and  treading  or  threshing  out  the 
corn  for  their  owners,  the  apostle  argued  their  right 
to  a  support,  even  from  the  law  in  favor  of  oxen :  It 
is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  (Deut.  xxv.  4.)  Thou 
shalt  not  muzzle  the  mouth  of  the  ox  that  treadeth 
out  the  corn.  Doth  God  take  care  for  oxen  ?  Or 
saith  he  it  altogether  for  our  sakes  ?  for  our  sakes, 
no  doubt,  this  is  written :  that  he  that  ploiceth  should 
plow  in  hope :  and  that  he  that  thresheth  in  hope, 
should  be  partaker  of  his  hope.  The  apostle,  too, 
considered  the  temporal  maintenance  due  from  the 
churches  of  Christ  to  their  ministers,  as  a  very  small 
matter  compared  with  the  spiritual  benefit  which 
they  enjoy  through  their  instrumentality :  If,  saith 
he,  we  have  sown  unto  you  spiritual  things,  is  it  a 
great  thing  if  we  shall  reap  your  carnal  things  1  He 
reminded  them  also,  that  false  teachers  were  receiv- 
ing more  than  they  who  taught  the  truth  :  If  others, 
meaning  the  false  apostles,  be  partakers  of  this  power 
over  you,  (while  disseminating  error  among  them,)  are 
not  we,  (himself  and  Barnabas,)  entitled  to  it,  rather 

52 


392  LEVl's    SUBSTANCE    BLESSED  [sER.  XIK 

than  they  1  Nevertheless  we  have  not  used  this  power ; 
but  suffer  all  things,  lest  we  should  hinder  the  gospel 
of  Christ.  Thus,  to  the  present  day,  and  even  in 
lands  called  Christian,  there  are  places  where 
only  to  name,  and  much  more  to  urge,  the  duty  of 
the  people  to  contribute  toward  the  support  of  those 
who  preach  to  them,  would  hinder  the  acceptance  of 
the  gospel  among  them  ;  and  where,  therefore,  gos- 
pel-ministers, (unless  supported  by  other  churches,  as 
Paul  was  while  he  preached  at  Corinth,  2  Cor.  xi.  8.) 
must  maintain  themselves  and  families  by  manual 
labor.  The  right,  however,  of  gospel-ministers  to  a 
maintenance  from  those  whonf  they  servea  the  apostle 
precedes  to  show  from  the  very  type  before  us,  that  is, 
the  maintenance  of  the  Levitical  priests :  Do  ye  not 
know,  saith  he,  that  they  who  minister  about  holy 
things  live  of  the  things  of  the  temple  1  and  they 
who  wait  at  the  altar  are  partakers  with  the  al- 
tar ?  Even  so,  continues  he,  hath  the  Lord  ordained, 
that  they  who  preach  the  gospel  should  live  of  the 
gospel.  See  1  Cor.  ix.  7 — 14.  and  comp.  1  Tim. 
v.  18.* 

3.  Not  only  the  priests,  but  the  other  Levites  al- 
so, were  to  be  constantly  employed  in  the  service  of 
the  sanctuary,  and  therefore  had  their  portion,  not 
in  land  but  in  things  sacred. 

Hence,  private  Christians,  of  whom  these  Levites 
were  typical,  should  remember — 1.  That  they,  as 
well  as  ministers,  ought  to  be  constant  in  waiting 

*  On  this  subject  I  always  speak  the  more  freely,  because  it  is 
well  known  that  I  am  not  speaking  for  myself;  the  church  I  serve 
having  constantly  and  sufficiently  provided  for  me  and  mine. 


[SER.  XII.       AND    HIS    ENEMIES    VANQUISHED.  393 

upon  God,  not  only  in  private  and  in  their  families, 
but  also  in  the  sanctuary. — 2.  That  they,  as  well  as 
their  ministers,  are  required  to  take  a  habitual,  a  spe- 
cial and  always  a  primary  concern  in  promoting  the 
welfare  of  Zion.  So  said  Christ  to  his  disciples : 
Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God.  And — 3.  That, 
although  they  are  not,  like  the  Levites,  and,  like 
gospel-ministers,  prevented,  by  their  station,  from 
pursuing  husbandry  or  other  avocations  for  a  liveli- 
hood ;  yet,  that  they  should  not  be  earthly  minded, 
nor  anxious  to  accumulate  earthly  things  as  their 
portion  :  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon 
earth,  8fc.  As  the  portion  of  the  Levites  consisted 
not  in  land,  but  in  things  holy ;  so  the  portion  of 
the  saints  consists,  not  in  earth  and  earthly  things, 
but  in  grace  and  glory.  Psal.  Ixxxiv.  11.  The  in- 
heritance to  which  they  are  heirs,  is  incorruptible, 
undefiled  smdfadeth  not  away.  1  Pet.  i.  4. 

But,  my  believing  hearers,  the  better  to  reconcile 
us  to  our  temporal  conditions,  let  us  take  another 
view  of  the  portion  of  the  priests  and  Levites. 

1.  The  high-priest,  as  noticed  before,  had  all  the 
inferior  priests  and  all  the  Levites,  given  to  him ; 
see  Num.  xviii,  6  ;  so,  for  our  comfort,  let  us  recol- 
lect, that,  if  true  Kelievers,  whether  gospel-ministers 
or  private  Christians,  we  are  of  those  whom  God  the 
Father  gave  to  Christ,  as  his  peculiar  treasure,  and 
that  we  are  his  special  and  perpetual  care.  Christ, 
indeed,  is  Heir  of  all  things ;  yet  the  riches  of  the 
glory  of  his  inheritance  is  in  the  saints.  Eph.  i.  18. 
Nor  can  he  be  deprived  of  them;  I  give  unto  them, 
eternal  life,  saith  he,  and  adds,  they  shall  never  per- 


394  LEVl's   SUBSTANCE   BLESSED          [SER.  XII. 

ish,  neither  shall  any  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand. 
John  x.  28. 

2.  The  priests  and  Levites  in  common,  had  a 
portion  in  the  sacrifices,  both  by  way  of  atone- 
ment and  of  nourishment;  see  Levit.  xvi.  and  Num. 
xviii.  So,  let  ministers  and  all  other  believers  recol- 
lect, that  they  are  interested  in  the  great  Antitype 
of  all  the  sacrifices,  Christ  himself — that  through 
him  all  their  sins  are  atoned  for  and  blotted  out,  and 
that,  as  believers  in  him,  they  live  upon  him;  to 
them,  his  flesh  is  meat  indeed  and  his  Hood  is  drink 
indeed.  John  vi.  55.  What  if  God,  then,  see  fit 
to  bestow  the  larger  share  of  temporal  things  upon 
the  men  of  the  world,  that  have  their  portion  in  this 
life,  he  has,  nevertheless,  bestowed  upon  his  people 
what  is  infinitely  better,  even  his  dear  Son,  and  has 
thereby  given  us  the  strongest  assurance  possible, 
that  he  will  not  withhold  from  us  any  real  good : 
for  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered 
him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He  not  with  Him  also 
freely  give  us  all  things  ?  Rom.  viii.  32. 

3.  The  priests  had  one  portion  peculiar  to  them- 
selves :  they  had  a  tythe  out  of  the  tythes  of  the  Le- 
vites ;  which  being  offered  to  the  Lord,  fell  to  the 
priesthood.  Num.  xviii.  26 — 28.  Thus  gospel-min- 
isters indirectly  share  in  all  that  God's  people  receive 
under  their  ministry ;  for,  both  in  their  calling  and  in 
their  subsequent  edification,  we  behold  that,  as  instru- 
ments, our  labor  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord ;  we  are 
ministers,  brethren,  by  whom  ye  believed* — we  are 

*  1  Cor.  iii.  5. 


SER.  XII.]      AND    HIS   ENEMIES   VANQUISHED.  395 

comforted  in  your  comfort?  and  we  live,  that  is,  we 
are  animated  and  joyful,  if  ye  stand  fast  in  the 
Lords  But, 

4.  To  remove  all  occasion  for  murmuring  or  dis- 
pondency,  in  Aaron — in  the  inferior  priests,  or  in  the 
common  Levites,  God  let  them  know  that  he  himself 
was  in  their  portion ;  for,  to  Aaron,  as  personating 
the  whole  tribe,  he  said,  I  am  thy  part  and  thy  in- 
heritance.*     The  same  is   true  of  Christ  and  the 
church.       The    Father   having    by   an   everlasting 
covenant,  become  the  God  of  Christ,  as  man  and 
Mediator,  says  of  the  elect,  as  represented  in  him, 
/  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.* 
The  called  among  them,  know    and  acknowledge 
him  as  such  :   This  God,  say  they,  is  our  God  for 
ever  and  ever :  he  will  be  our  Guide,  even  unto  death. 
And,  though  they  have  many  enemies  to  encounter, 
and,  in  this  life,  when  compared  with  other  men, 
may  seem  to  be  under  some  disadvantages  ;  yet  their 
covenant-interest   in    God,  makes   them  secure  of 
victory  and  of  infinite  gain  :  God  is  their  shield  from 
every  foe,  and  their  exceeding  great  reward^     To 
the  church,  nay  to    every  believer,  He   is  saying, 
Fear  thou  not ;  for  lam  with  thee ;  be  not  dismayed, 
for  I  am  thy  God :  I,  even  /,  am  he  that  comforteth 
you :  who  art  thou,  that  thou  shouldst  be  afraid  of  a 
man  that  shall  die,  and  of  the  son  of  man  that  shall 
be   made   as  grass,    and  jforgettest   the   Lord   thy 
Maker,  &c. h      In   this  covenant-relation  to   God, 
Christ,  both  for  himself  and  his  people,   rejoiced; 

b  2  Cor.  vii.  13.      '  1  Thess.  iii.  8.      d  Num.  xviii.  20.     «  Jer. 
xxxi.  33.     *  Psal.  xlviii.  14.     e  Gen.  xv.  1.     h  Is.  xli.  10.  li.  12, 13. 


396  LBVl'a    SUBSTANCE   BLESSED  [SER.   XII. 

saying  to  his  disciples,  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and 
your  Father  ;  and  to  my  God  and  your  God.1 

It  remains  to  be  shown,  under  this  head,  how  God 
according  to  the  prophetic  prayer  of  Moses,  blesses 
the  substance  of  Levi,  mystically  considered.  In 
this  view  of  the  subject,  as  noticed  already,  the  high- 
priest,  the  head  of  the  sacerdotal  tribe,  was  a  type 
of  Christ,  who  is  the  Head  of  the  church,  and  by 
whom  all  true  believers  are  made  priests  unto  God; 
wherefore,  in  blessing  the  church,  both  ministers 
and  private  members,  God  blesses  the  substance,  the 
portion  of  Christ.* 

For  this  he  made  ample  provision,  when  he  blessed 
us  with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  heavenly  places,  or 
things,  in  Christ,  according  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in 
him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  that,  by  his 
gracious  influence  upon  us,  ice  should  be  holy  and 
without  blame  before  him  in  love.k 

1  John  xx.  17. 

*  As  the  nation  of  Israel,  in  common,  so  each  tribe  thereof,  in 
certain  respects,  was  a  type  of  the  church.  See  Ser.  vi.  p.  224,  &c. 
Thus,  for  instance,  while  the  chosen  nation,  as  such,  was  a  figure 
of  God's  elect,  (see  Dent.  vii.  6.  Is.  xlv.  25.  and  Rom.  xi.  26.)  the 
tribe  of  Levi  in  particular,  as  separated  and  consecrated  to  pecu- 
liar service,  may  justly  be  viewed  as  a  type  of  the  regenerate;  who 
are  separated  and  devoted  to  God,  and  of  whom,  ministers  answer 
to  the  priests,  and  private  Christians,  to  the  other  Levites.  See  Is. 
Ixvi.  21.  So,  in  the  New  Testament,  believers  are  styled  the  catted 
of  Jesus  Christ,  in  distinction  from  his  redeemed,  remaining  in  a 
etate  of  nature,  Rom.  i.  6.  Nor  is  it  any  objection  to  this  distinc- 
tion, that  the  whole  nation,  as  called  out  of  Egypt,  is  alluded  to  as 
a  type  of  those  called  out  of  darkness  into  marvelous  light;  1  Pet. 
ii.  9;  for,  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  oj  times,  this  will  be 
realized  in  all  the  elect.  Eph.  i.  10. 

k  Eph.  i.  3,  4. 


SER.    XII.]      AND    HIS   ENEMIES   VANQUISHED.  397 

But  he  blesses  us  experimentally,  when,  by  his 
Spirit,  he  reveals  Christ,  with  all  these  blessings  in 
him,  as  by  covenant  made  over  to  us.     By  this  mani- 
festation of  Christ  to  our  souls,  whether  at  first  con- 
version or  at  an£  after  period,  we  discover,  that  in 
having  him  we  have  alt  things  richly  to  enjoy ;  that 
he  is  of  God  made  unto  us  Wisdom,  and  Righteous- 
ness, and  Sanctification,  and  Redemption  ;l  that  he 
is   THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS"" — the   sacrifice 
for  our  sins" — the  fountain  open  for  our  cleansing0 — 
the  source  of  our  lifep — and  the  depository  of  all 
our  supplies. i     Thus  God  blesses  the  church,  which 
is   the  substance  or  portion  of  Christ,  by  making 
Christ,  who  is  the  substance  or  portion  of  the  church, 
a  blessing  unto  her ;  and  which  he  does  indeed,  by 
revealing  and  applying  his  fulness  to  her  members. 
Herein,  according  to  his  gracious  promise  made  to 
the  church,  He  abundantly  blesses  her  provision,  and 
satisfies  her  poor  with  bread/ 

To  procede.  Moses,  in  behalf  of  Levi,  prays, 
II.  For  the  acceptance  of  his  services :  And  ac- 
cept the  work  of  his  hands ;  that  is,  the  work  of 
Aaron  and  of  all  the  priests,  in  offering  sacrifices 
and  presenting  incense,  and  the  work  of  the  other 
Levites  also,  in  all  their  services  pertaining  to  the 

I  Tabernacle  and  Temple.  The  priests  and  Levites, 
like  all  other  men,  were  imperfect ;  yet  Mosey  prayed 
and  thereby  predicted,  that  God  would  accept  their 
work,  their  various  service,  performed  in  an  official 
way,  by  his  appointment.  The  answer,  too,  of  this 

1 1  Cor.  i.  30.     m  Jer.  xxiii.  6.      n  Heb.  x.  10.     °  Zech.  xiii.  1. 
P  Col.  iii.  4.    i 1bid.  i.  19.     '  Psal.  cxxxii.  15. 


398  LEVl's    SUBSTANCE    BLESSED  [SER.  XII. 

prophetic  prayer  is  manifest  from  the  sacred  records ; 
which  abundantly  show,  that  the  work  of  the  priests 
and  Levites  in  common,  though  it  consisted  in  car- 
nal ordinances,  was,  nevertheless,  to  the  ends  for 
which  it  was  designed,  acceptable  to  God,  when 
performed  agreeably  to  his  direction.8 

Here  the  typical  design  is  obvious  and  full  of  en- 
couragement.    For, 

1 .  The  work)  the  offering  of  our  great  High-priest, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  was  acceptable  and  grateful 
to  his  heavenly  Father  ;  even  an  offering  and  a  sa- 
crifice to  Gody  for  a  sweet-smelling  savor.     That 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  was  accepted  of  the  Father, 
as  a  satisfactory  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  elect, 
is  manifest  in  that  he  raised  him  from  the  dead  and 
received  him  to  glory.     Him,  "  who  was  delivered 
for  our  offenses  and  raised  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion,'?t  hath  God  exalted  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Sa- 
viour, for  to  give  repentance  to  Israel,  and  forgive- 
ness of  sins."     The  same  is  also  apparent  from  the 
intercession  of  Christ ;  which,  being  made  in  behalf 
of  those  for  whom  he  died  and  rose  again,  is  ever- 
availing.       Who,  then,  shall  lay  any  thing  to  the 
charge  of  God's  elect  ?    It  is   God  that  justifieth. 
«  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died, 
yea  rather  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  ever  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for 
us.w 

2.  The  work  of  gospel-ministers  is  acceptable  to 
God.     This  appears  by  the  sanction  which  he  has 

•  Exo.  xl.  34.  1  Kings  viii.  10,  11.  Mai.  iii.  4.      'Rom.  iv.  25. 
•  Acts  v.  31.    w  Rom.  viii.  33,  34. 


SER.  XII.]        AND    HIS    ENEMIES    VANQUISHED.  399 

given  to  the  gospel,  as  preached  by  them.  The 
apostles  preached  it  with  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven*  And,  as  then,  so 
ever  since,  the  hand  of  the  Lord  being  with  the 
faithful  preachers  of  it,  many  have  believed,  and 
turned  unto  the  LordJ  Often  too,  our  poor  labors 
are  rendered  the  means  of  refreshing  those  who 
have  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gracious.  Directed 
and  animated  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  like  Paul  and 
others,  we  are  helpers  of  your  joys  But  whether 
the  messages  of  truth  we  deliver,  be  believed  or  dis- 
believed on  earth,  our  work,  if  faithfully  performed, 
is  acceptable  in  heaven:  for  we  are  unto  God  a 
sweet  savor  of  Christ,  both  in  them  that  are  saved, 
and  in  them  that  perish*  And, 

3.  The  work  of  all  private  Christians,  no  less  than 
that  of  gospel-ministers,  when  rightly  done,  is  ac- 
cepted. Such  their  scriptural  worship  :  herein  they 
offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God,  by 
Jesus  Christ.*  Such  their  various  liberality  toward 
the  cause  and  the  poor  of  the  Lord  :  For  God,  saith 
the  apostle  to  believers,  is  not  unrighteous  to  forget 
your  icork  and  labor  of  love,  which  ye  have  showed 
toward  his  name,  in  that  ye  have  ministered  to  the 
saints  and  do  minister ;  and,  the  more  to  excite  and 
encourage  us  therein,  he  adds,  to  do  good  and  to 
communicate,  forget  not ;  for  with  such  sacrifices 
God  is  well  pleased.^  Nay,  even  our  civil  avoca- 
tions, pursued  from  right  motives  and  in  proper  de- 
grees, meet  the  divine  approbation  and  blessing: 

*  1  Pet.  i.  12.     y  Acts  xi.  21.     «  2  Cor.  i.  24.     a  2  Cor.  ii.  15. 
*  1  Pet.  it  5.     c  Heb.  vt  10.  xiii.  16. 

53 


400  LEVI'S    SUBSTANCE    BLESSED  [SER.  XII. 

for  we  are  exhorted  not  to  be  slothful  in  business, 
that  we  may  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all 
men;d  and  are  reminded,  that  it  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive.*  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten, 
that,  as  the  acceptableness  of  our  worship  does  not 
depend  on  the  splendor  of  our  gifts  ;  so  neither  does 
the  acceptableness  of  our  contributions  depend  on 
the  abundance  we  may  have  it  in  our  power  to  com- 
municate ;  but  on  the  disposition  with  which  we 
give  ;  for  if  there  be  Jlrst  a  willing  mind,  it  is  ac 
cepted  according  to  that  a  man  hath! 

In  behalf  of  Levi,  Moses  moreover  prays, 
III.  For  the  effectual  conquest  of  his  enemies ; 
saying  to  God,  Smite  through  the  loins  of  them  that 
rise  against  him,  and  of  them  that  hate  him,  that 
they  rise  not  again.  The  priests  and  Levites  were 
appointed  of  God,  to  officiate  in  sacred  service,  for 
the  honor  of  his  name  and  the  welfare  of  his  chosen 
nation.  Nevertheless,  this  prophetic  prayer  im- 
plies, 

1.  That  they  would  have  opposers — them  that 
would  rise  against  them.  Such  had  been  the  com- 
panies of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram  ;•  who, 
though  Israelites  themselves,  and  chiefly  Levites, 
were  ambitious  of  undue  preferment— ambitious  of 
the  priesthood ;  and  therefore  rose  up  against,  not 
only  the  ordinary  priests,  but  against  Aaron,  the 
high-priest,  under  whom  the  inferior  priests  and  Le- 
vites were  employed;  nay,  against  Moses  also,  and 
thereby  against  God  himself,  whom  Moses,  in  some 
instances,  represented.  See  Num.  xvi.  And  in 

/ 
*  Rom.  xii.  11, 17.     •  Acts  xx.  35,     '2  Cor.  viii.  12, 


SER.  XII.]         AND    HIS    ENEMIES    VANQUISHED.  401 

like  manner,  at  divers  times  and  places  under  the 
present  dispensation,  companies  of  professors  have 
risen  up  in  contempt  of  the  divine  institution  of  the 
gospel-ministry,  all  claiming  an  equal  right  with 
them,  to  officiate  in  preaching  the  word  and  admi- 
nistering ordinances,  a  work  which  God  hath  as- 
signed to  men,  whom  he  specially  qualifies  for  it 
and  calls  to  perform  it.  Such  professors,  in  effect, 
say  to  the  Lord's  ministers,  as  Korah  and  his  asso- 
ciates said  to  Moses  and  Aaron,  Ye  take  too  much 
upon  you,  seeing  all  the  congregation  are  holy,  every 
one  of  them,  and  the  Lord  is  among  them :  where- 
fore then  lift  ye  up  yourselves  above  the  congrega- 
tion of  the  Lord  ?e  All  the  congregation  of  Israel, 
it  is  true,  were  relatively  holy,  God  having  chosen 
that  nation,  and  by  covenant  taken  it,  as  such,  into 
a  peculiar  relation  to  himself  ;h  nevertheless,  the 
charge  and  service  of  the  sanctuary,  he  had  speci- 
ally assigned  to  the  tribe  of  Lev?,  and  of  them, 
had  chosen  and  separated  the  house  of  Aaron  ex- 
clusively, to  the  office  of  the  priesthood.11  And  so, 
although  all  the  elect  were  sanctified,  or  set  apart 
from  the  rest  of  mankind,  by  God  the  Father^  and 
preserved  by  Jesus  Christ,  and,  in  due  time,  are  all 
called  and  made  partakers  of  true  holiness  ;l  and 
though  all  the  called  are  spiritual  Israelites,  and,  as 
such,  are  entitled  to  the  privileges  and  bound  to  take 
an  interest  in  the  charge  and  worship  of  the  New^ 
Testament  sanctuary,  the  gospel-church ;  yet,  in  all 
generations,  comparatively  but  few  of  them  are  ma- 
nifested to  be  divinely  chosen,  qualified  and  called 

*  Num.  xvi.  3.  h  Exo.  xix.  5 — 8  Deut.  vii.  6. — 9.  *  Num.  xviii* 
23.     k  Exo.  xxviii.  1.     !  Jucle  ver.  1,  and  Eph.  iv.  24. 


402  Lfctl'S  StfcSTANCE  BLE&SEb  [SER.  Xll. 

to  officiate  in  the  gospel- ministry.  Are  all  apostles  ? 
are  all  prophets  ?  are  all  teachers  ?m  Certainly  not. 
2.  That  they  (the  priests  and  Levites  of  regular 
deportment)  would  have  enemies  as  well  as  oppo- 
sers — them  that  would  hate  them.  Yet  the  ill-will 
which  any  felt  toward  their  persons,  was  on  account 
of  their  work  ;  and  as  their  work  was  assigned  -to 
them  of  God,  all  opposition  made  to  them,  in  the 
performance  of  it,  was  rebellion  against  Him,  by 
whose  authority  they  acted.*  Thus  all  the  ill-will 
that  Satan  and  those  influenced  by  him,  have,  at  any 
time  or  in  any  way,  manifested  against  gospel-min- 
isters, has  not  been  so  much  against  their  persons  as 
against  their  official  work,  or  rather  against  the  doc- 
trine which  they  have  professed  and  preached.  This 
doctrine,  however,  is  not  theirs  but  Christ's,  even 
that  doctrine  which  he,  as  Mediator,  received  from 
the  Father  who  sent  him  ;  John  vii.  16.  Christ, 
therefore,  regards  all  the  persecutors,  both  of  his  min- 
isters, for  preaching  his  doctrine,  and  of  his  other 
disciples,  for  believing  it,  as  being  influenced  by  ha- 
tred against  himself  and  his  Father :  If  they  have 
persecuted  me,  said  he  to  his  followers,  they  will 
persecute  you — but  all  these  things  will  they  do  unto 
you  for  my  name's  sake,  because  they  know  not  him 
thai  sent  me.— He  that  hateth  me,  hateth  my  Father 
also.0  The  secret  of  all  is,  that  the  carnal  mind, 
whether  in  hypocrites  or  in  non-professors,  is  enmi- 
ty against  Godp— against  God  both  essential  and 
personal ;  and  therefore,  against  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost.q 

01  Cor.  xii.  29.     a  Num.  xvii,  10.     Q  John  xv,  20—23.   P  Rona* 
tii.  7.     t  Matt.  xii.  24.  31,  32. 


feER.  XII.]       AND  HIS  ENEMIES  VANQUISHED.  403 

Prompted  by  this  enmity  against  the  Son,  the  gen- 
eration among  whom  he  tabernacled  on  earth,  spake 
all  manner  of  evil  against  him.  The  rabble,  to  re- 
proach him  among  their  equals,  said  of  him,  Be- 
hold,  a  man  gluttonous,  and  a  wine-bibber* — the 
Pharisees,  to  lesson  the  fame  of  his  miracles,  accu- 
sed him  of  being  in  collusion  with  Beelzebub,  the 
prince  of  the  devils5 — and  the  chief  priests,  to  give 
vent  to  their  satanic  rancor,  called  him,  That  deceiv- 
er* 

The  same  enmity,  too,  was  felt  and  manifested  by 
many,  against  the  apostles  and  other  ministers  of 
Christ,  because  they  espoused  his  interest  and  preach- 
ed his  doctrine.  To  excite  popular  prejudice  against 
them,  and  especially  against  the  gospel  itself,  many 
said  of  them,  These  men  that  have  turned  the  world 
upside  down  are  come  hither  also — as  though  wher- 
ever they  came,  they  were  the  disturbers  of  the  pub- 
lic peace,  and,  as  such,  the  pests  of  the  common- 
wealth.11 

Nor  could  even  private  Christians,  because  they 
acknowledged  Christ  and  received  his  doctrine,  es* 
cape  the  serpentine  tongue  of  slander  :  concerning 
this  sect,  the  Christian  community,  ice  know,  said  the 
Jews  to  Paul,  that  every  where  it  is  spoken  against.* 
And  who  that  has  read  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
church,  and  observed  the  movements  of  the  enemy 
in  our  own  times,  does  not  know,  that  the  name,  the 
gospel,  the  ministers,  and  all  the  consistent  disciples 
of  Christ,  have,  in  like  manner,  been  maligned  and 

r  Matt.  xi.  19.  » Ibid,  xii*  24.  Ubid.  xxvii.  63.  u  Acts  xvii< 
6.  w  Acts  xxviii.  22. 


404  LEVl's  SUBSTANCE  BLESSED  [SER.    XII* 

vilified  ever  since,  and  especially  by  false  brethren, 
carnal  professors,  unawares  brought  in  ?*  Nor  is  this 
any  more  than  we  ought  to  expect ;  Christ  and  his 
apostles  having  foretold  it ;  Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all 
nations,  said  Christ  to  his  disciples,  for  my  name's 
sake,y — If  ye  suffer  for  righteousness1  sake,  said  Peter, 
happy  are  ye,  adding,  be  not  afraid  of  their  terror, 
neither  be  troubled* —  Yea,  all  that  will  live  godly  in 
Christ  Jesus,  said  Paul,  shall  suffer  persecutions 
Many,  it  is  true,  are  excellent  moralists,  and  seem 
to  live  godly,  who,  nevertheless  pass  under  general 
favor ;  but,  alas,  they  are  not  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
therefore  not  objects  of  Satan's  envy  ;  but "  all  that," 
from  a  principle  of  grace  wrought  in  them,  will,  that 
is,  desire  and  strive,  to  live  godly,  being  in  Christ 
Jesus,  by  vital  union  to  him  and  a  true  faith  in  him, 
shall  suffer  persecution,  in  one  way  or  another. 
This  prayer,  however,  must  be  understood, 
3.  As  a  prediction  of  the  effectual  conquest  of  all 
Levi's  opposers  and  enemies  ;  for  the  Spirit  by  which 
Moses  prayed  was  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  by  which 
he  could  pray  for  nothing  but  what  God  designed  to 
grant.  Now,  moved  by  this  Spirit,  Moses,  in  behalf 
Levi,  prayed  to  God,  saying,  smite  through  the  loins 
of  them  that  rise  against  him,  and  of  them  that 
hate  him,  that  they  rise  not  again.  Among  the  suc- 
cessive instances  in  which  this  prophetic  prayer  was 
answered,  a  remarkable  one  occured  in  king  Saul; 
for  when  he  rose  up  as  the  opposer  and  enemy  of 
the  Lord's  priests,  he  thereby  filled  the  cup  of  his 

*  2  Cor.  xi.  26.  Gal.  ii.  4.     y  Matt.  xxiv.  9.     z  I  Pet.   iii.  14, 
*  2  Tim.  iii.  12. 


WBR.  XII.]       AND    HIS    ENEMIES    VANQUISHED.  405 

iniquity  and  hastened  the  approach  of  his  own  ruin  ; 
he  was  presently  abandoned  of  God — overcome  by 
the  Philistines — and  suffered,  at  the  instigation  of 
Satan,  to  thrust  himself  though  with  his  ownsword.b 

Nor  did  this  prophecy  any  less  respect,  the  oppo- 
sers  and  enemies  of  Christ,  his  ministers  and  his 
church.  These  also,  God  would  eventually  smite 
through,  in  such  manner,  that,  as  opposers,  they 
should  not  rise  again. 

This  God  does,  in  some  instances,  in  a  way  of 
grace  ;  for  when  he  is  pleased  to  regenerate  the 
greatest  opposers  and  persecutors,  he  thereby  so 
effectually  smites  them  through,  that  they  never 
again  rise  up  as  the  enemies,  but  become  the  friends 
of  Christ  and  his  people.  Witness  Saul  of  Tarsus. 

More  generally,  however,  he  smites  them  through 
in  a  way  of  wrath.  In  this  view  of  the  prophecy,  it 
contains  an  allusion  to  the  ruin  of  Korah,  Dathan, 
and  Abiram;  for  as  God  had  awfully  destroyed 
them,  so  he  would  destroy  the  future  enemies  of  Le- 
vi,  and  especially  the  enemies  of  Christ  and  his 
church.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  persecuting  Jews, 
when,  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  wrath  came 
upon  them  to  the  uttermost*  Such  will  be  the  fate 
of 'mystical  Babylon,  when,  like  the  mill-stone  which 
a  mighty  angel  cast  into  the  sea,  she  shall  be  thrown 
down,  and  shall  be  found  no  more  at  aU.d  And  such, 
ultimately,  must  be  the  doom  of  all  who  live  and  die 
enemies  to  the  ministers  and  church  of  Christ  ;  for 
all  such  Christ  regards  as  enemies  both  to  himself 

b  1  Sam.  xxii.  17. 18.  and  xxi.  1—6.  c  1  Thess.  ii.  16.  «  Re?, 
xviii.  21.  Comp.  Jer.  li.  63,  64. 


406  LEVIES    SUBSTANCE    BLESSED  [sER.  XII. 

and  his  Father.      He,  saith  Christ  to  his  disciples, 
that  despiseth  you  despiseth  me;  and  he  that  dcspii- 
ethmc,  despiseth  him  that  sent  me.  Luke  x.  16. 
From  the  subject, 

1 .  Let  us,  my  believing  hearers,  learn  that,  what- 
ever of  a  worldly  nature  may  be  denied  us,  we  have 
a  goodly  heritage :  God  himself,  as  heretofore  shown, 
is  our  inheritance. 

2.  Let  us,  whether  ministers  or  private  Christians, 
be  excited  cheerfully  to  engage  in  the  duties  and  pri- 
vileges of  our  respective  stations  ;  recollecting  that 
our  persons  being  made  accepted  in  the  Beloved, 
our  various  services  also  are  accepted  and  acceptable 
through  him.  1  Pet.  ii.  5.  And, 

3.  Let  us,  my  ministering  brethren,  and  let  all 
that  have  obtained  like  precious  faith  with  us,  learn 
not  to  be  discouraged  by  the  persecutions  and  revi- 
lings  of  enemies.      Sufferings  for  Christ's  sake  are 
inseparable  from  that  faith  in  him  which  is  the  gift 
of  God  :  unto  you,  saith  Paul,  to  those  who  possess 
this  faith,  it  is  given  in  the  behalf  of  Christ,  not  only 
to  believe  in  him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake.* 
And  the  more  to  reconcile  us  thereto,  the  same  apos- 
tle exhorts  us  to  recollect,  that  Christ  himself  was 
treated  in  like  manner  :    Consider  him  that  endur- 
ed such  contradiction  of  sinners  against  himself, 
lest  ye  be  wearied,  and  faint  in  your  minds.e 

Nor  should  we  meditate  revenge  on  those  who 
injure  us,  but  leave  them  at  the  disposal  of  him  who 
hath  said,  vengeance  is  mine  I  will  repay  ;  and  who, 
in  his  own  time  and  way,  will  smite  through  their 


Philip,  i.  29.      *  Heb.  xii.  3. 


SER.  XII.]       AND  HIS  ENEMIES  VANQUISHED.  407 

loins,  that  they  rise  not  again  to  annoy  us.  Thus  ac- 
ting, we  shall  imitate  Christ ;  who,  when  he  was  revi- 
led, reviled  not  again ;  and  when  he  suffered,  though 
his  enemies  were  all  in  his  power,  he  threatened  not ; 
but  committed  himself  to  him  that  judgeth  right- 
eously.* 

Recollecting  how  much  better  it  is  to  be  persecu- 
ted than  to  be  persecutors,  let  us  rejoice  in  our 
lot.     Christians  !  think  how  unhappy  your  enemies 
are,  and  you  will  not  try  to  make  them  more  so. 
They  are  trudging  from  house  to  house — from  post 
to  pillar,  and  from  village  to  village,  burdened  with 
fabricated  stories  and  vilifying  pamphlets,  and  dis- 
tracted with  the  ravings  of  malice,  envy,  and  disap- 
pointment.    Truly  the  wicked  are  as  the  troubled 
sea,  when  it  cannot  rest,  whose  waters  cast  up  mire 
and  dirt.z    Think,  too,  how  deluded  some  of  them 
are !  They  talk  of  a  fire  within,  and  would  have 
their  readers  and  hearers  to  suppose  it  is  the  fire  of 
a  holy  jealousy  for  the  Lord  of  Hosts ;  but,  alas,  there 
is  much  reason  to  fear,  it  is  what  an  apostle  calls  the 
fire  of  hell.h    It  is  a  fire  by  which  they  are  working, 
and,  if  grace  prevent  not,  must  accomplish  their  own 
ruin,  temporal  and  eternal ;  it  disturbs  their  repose, 
exhausts  their  strength,  impairs  their  health,  sears 
their  conscience,  and  thus  hurries  them  on  toward 
death  and  destruction.     The  fire  of  thine  enemies, 
saith  Isaiah  to  the  Lord,  or  rather,  to  the  church, 
shall  devour  them.1     It  devours  their  present  com- 
forts.    Often,  too,  it  breaks  out  in  such  fury  as  to 
manifest  its   true  character  to  all  who  behold  its 

f  1  Pet.  ii.  23.     B  Is.  Ivii.  20.     h  Jas.  iii.  6.     *  Is.  xxvi.  Ill      1 

54 


408  LEVl's  SUBSTANCE  BLESSED.  [SER.  Xlt* 

flashes ;  and  thereby,  to  their  deep  regret,  it  defeats 
the  object  both  of  him  who  kindles  it  and  of  those 
who  emit  it.  Or  if,  in  other  instances  or  in  other 
persons,  it  acts  with  more  moderation,  it,  neverthe- 
less, prompts  them  to  the  adoption  of  such  measures, 
as,  for  art  and  cunning,  for  intrigue  and  deception, 
cannot  be  distinguished  from  the  wiles  of  the  devils 
Nay,  though  it  may  assume  a  pretence  to  prophecy — 
yea,  may  excite  its  possessors  to  be  at  the  expense  of 
hiring  prophets  far  and  near,  to  confirm  its  oracular 
authority,  or  though  the  prophets,  partaking  of  the 
same  fire,  may  volunteer  their  services,  for  the  luxury 
of  doing  evil;  still,  poor  creatures,  they  must  fail;  for 
there  is  no  enchantment  against  Jacob,  neither  is 
there  any  divination  against  Israel,  that  can  pre- 
vail.1 Surely  they  are  not  to  be  envied,  but  pitied. 
Their  labour,  however  arduous  and  however  zeal- 
ously pursued,  is  to  them  only  an  evident  token  of 
perdition,  but  to  us  of  salvation,  and  that  of  God™ 
All  our  hope  concerning  them  is,  that/  in  some  in- 
stances, God,  with  whom  we  leave  them,  strikes 
through  the  loins  of  such  in  a  way  of  grace.  O  that 
this,  my  brethren,  may  be  the  happy  lot  of  my  ene- 
mies and  yours  !  But,  if  the  Judge  of  all  see  pro- 
per to  deal  with  them  in  a  way  of  penal  retribution, 
it  becomes  us  to  acquiesce  in  his  will ;  seeing  that  it 
is  a  righteous  thing  with  God,  to  recompense  tribu- 
lation to  them  that  trouble  his  people."  Just  and 
true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of  saints.  Rev.  xv.  3. 

k  Eph.  vi.  11.     *  Num.  xxiji.  23.  Comp.  Isa.  liv.  15—17.    »  PhiL 
i.  28.    n  1  Thess.  i.  6. 


SERMON  XIII. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN. 


DEUT.  xxxiii.  12. — And  of  Benjamin  lie  said,  The  beloved  of  the 
Lord  shall  dwell  in  safety  by  him  ;  and  the  Lord  shall  cover  him 
all  the  day  long,  and  he  shall  dwell  between  his  shoulders* 


HERE,  as  in  verse  seventh,  we  perceive,  that  the 
Spirit  of  prophecy  in  Moses,  when  pronouncing  these 
blessings  upon  the  tribes  of  Israel,  did  not  always 
follow  the  order  in  which  their  respective  patriarchs 
descended  from  their  common  progenitor.  For, 
as  among  Jacob's  sons  by  Leah,  Judah,  though  the 
fourth,  is  placed  next  to  Reuben,  the  first  ;  so  here, 
of  his  sons  by  Rachel,  Benjamin,  the  younger,  is 
placed  before  Joseph,  the  elder. 

The  reasons,  however,  in  the  two  cases  are  dif- 
ferent. In  the  former,  respect  was  had  to  compara- 
tive dignity.  And  as,  in  a  civil  point  of  view,  the 
honors  of  royalty,  which  belonged  to  Judah,  were 
superior  to  those  of  the  priesthood,  which  belonged 
to  Levi,  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  fourth  in  descent 
from  Jacob,  is  mentioned  before  the  tribe  of  Levi, 
the  third  in  that  descent.  But  in  the  latter  case, 
respect  is  had  —  1,  To  the  adjacency  of  posses- 
sions in  the  land  of  Canaan.  For,  as  the  land  was 
to  be  divided  among  the  tribes  by  lot,  the  whole  dis- 
posing whereof  is  of  the  Lord,*  it  well  became  Him 
whose  understanding  is  infinite,  to  influence  the 
prophet,  to  mention  the  tribes  in  the  same  order  in 

•Rw.zvi.33. 


\ 


410  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  [sER.  XIII. 

which  He  designed,  by  the  lot,  to  divide  and  arrange 
their  portions  ;  that,  by  thus  coinciding,  the  prophecy 
and  the  lot,  though  at  least  fifteen  years  apart,  might 
serve  mutually  to  confirm  and  illustrate  each  other, 
and  that  it  might  thereby  be  evident,  that  both  were 
from   HIM,  who  is  in  one    mind,    and  cannot  be 
turned. b     Accordingly,  Levi  having,  as  you  have 
lately  heard,  no  landed  inheritance  in  Canaan,  Ben- 
jamin, among  the    tribes  which  had  such  inheri- 
tances there,  is  mentioned  next  to  Judah,  and  im- 
mediately before  Joseph ;  because  his  inheritance  lay 
between  the  inheritance  of  Judah  and  that  of  Joseph, 
and  contiguous  to  each.  See  Josh,  xviii.  10,  11. — 2. 
To  the  site  of  the  temple ;  which,  if  not  within  the 
lot  of  Benjamin,  was  very  near  it,  in  the  lot  of  Judah. 
The  latter  is  the  more  probable.     See  Psal.  Ixxviii. 
68.  69.*     Either  supposition,  however,  furnishes  an 
obvious  reason  why  Benjamin  is  mentioned  before 
Joseph. — And  3.  To  the  city  of  Jerusalem;  upon 
which,  as  it  was  the  holy  city  and  a  type  of  the 
church^  God  would  bestow  more  honor  than  upon 
Samaria,  the  capital  of  the   ten  tribes,  fallen  into 
idolatry .d     Now  Jerusalem  stood  partly  on  the  por- 
tion of  Judah  and  partly  on  that  of  Benjamin ;  and 
accordingly,  was  reckoned,  sometimes  to  the  for- 
mer* and  sometimes  to  the  latter;*  whereas  Sa- 
maria was  in  the  inheritance  of  Ephraim,  a  branch 
of  the  house  of  Josephs    Hence  another  and  a  very 

b  Job.  xxiii.  13.  c  Neh.  xi.  1.  Gal.  iv.  26.  Heb.  xii.  22.  Rev. 
xi.  2.  d  Is.  vii.  9.  Hosea  viii-  5,  6.  e  Josh.  xv.  8.  63.  f  Ibid, 
xviii.  28.  Judg.  i.  21.  §  Is.  ix.  9.  Josh.  xiv.  4. 

*  Dr.  Lightfoot,  upon  the  authority  of  talmudic  authors,  referred 
to  in  his  Works,  (Vol.  I.  p.  1050,)  says  of  the  sacred  buildings, 


SER.  XIII.]  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  411 

important  reason  why  Benjamin,  in  this  prophetic 
chapter,  is  mentioned  before  his  elder  brother  Jo- 
seph, and  (among  the  land-holding  tribes)  next  to 
Judah,  with  whom  he  was  interested  in  the  chosen 
city.     Besides — 4.    When  the  ten  tribes  followed 
Jeroboam  and  his  idolatrous  worship,  Benjamin  and 
Judah,  under  Rehoboam,  cleaved  to  each  other,  and 
to  the  temple  and  worship  of  God.      Most  fitly, 
therefore,  were  these  two  tribes,  in  commendation  of 
their  loyalty,  fraternal  affection,   and  persevering 
piety,  thus  honorably  associated  in  their  portions 
and  their  privileges  ;  having  both  the  holy  city  and 
the  temple  itself  upon  their  adjoining  borders,  with 
none  but  the  landless  priests  and  Levites  residing 
between  them,  and  these  adhering  to  them,  and  offi- 
ciating for  them.  See  2  Chron.  xi.  1,11,  12,  13, 14. 

In  discoursing  on  the  blessing  of  Benjamin,  I  shall, 
in  my  usual  way,  consider  it, 

I.  LITERALLY.  And  of  Benjamin  he  said,  that 
is,  Moses,  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  said 
of  him,  The  beloved  of  the  Lord  shall  dwell  in  safety 
by  him ;  and  the  Lord  shall  cover  him  all  the  day 
long,  and  he  shall  dwell  between  his  shoulders. 

The  tribe  of  Benjamin,  is  here  called  The  beloved 
of  the  Lord,  either  as  The  Lord  loved  the  people  of 

14  most  part  of  the  courts  was  in  the  portion  of  Judah,  but  the  al- 
tar, porch,  temple,Tand  most  holy  place,  were  in  the  portion  of  Ben- 
jamin." And  again,  referring  to  authorities  of  the  same  class, 
(Vol.  II.  p.  21,)  he  says,  "  The  distinguishing  line,"  (meaning  that 
between  Judah  and  Benjamin)  "  went  through  the  very  court  of 
the  temple;"  leaving  to  Judah,  "  the  mountain  of  the  temple,  the 
chambers  of  them  that  kept  it,  [and]  the  courts ;"  and  to  Benjamin, 
"  the  porch  of  the  temple,  and  the  temple;  and  the  holy  of  holies." 


412  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  [gER  XIII* 

Israel  in  common,11  or  rather,  with  reference  to  the 
special  love  wherewith  Jacob  loved  Benjamin  his 
son,  the  head  of  this  tribe ;  Jacob's  love  for  him, 
being  not  merely  natural  and  paternal,  but  also  su- 
pernatural and  prophetical ;  and  therefore  an  indica- 
tion that  the  Lord  loved  him.1 

Benjamin,  "  The  beloved  of  the  Lord,"  or,  being 
beloved  of  the  Lord,  as  some,  after  the  Septuagintfi 
choose  to  render  it,  "  shall  dwell  in  safety  by  him," 
that  is,  by  the  Lord.  The  literal  meaning  seems  to 
be  this :  the  temple,  as  already  noticed,  stood  if  not 
within  the  border  of  Benjamin,  yet  very  near  it,  upon 
the  adjacent  border  of  Judah,  or  perhaps  on  the  very 
line  between  the  two  ;  and,  as  the  Shecheenah,  the 
special  symbol  of  the  Lord's  presence,  dwelt  in  the 
temple,  Benjamin,  as  dwelling  by  that,  dwelt  by  the 
Lord.  Hence  his  safety;  for  all  that  dwell  near  the 
Lord,  are  safe  as  well  as  happy :  The  Lord  of  hosts 
is  with  them,  the  God  of  Jacob  is  their  refuge. 
Psal.  xlvi.  7. 

"  And,"  farther  to  account  for  the  safe-keeping  of 
Benjamin,  "  the  Lord,"  (adds  the  prophet,)  "  shall 
cover  him  all  the  day  long" — meaning,  either  "all the 
day"  literally,  or  "  all  the  day"  figuratively,  and  this 
whether  a  day  of  prosperity  or  a  day  of  adversity,  each 
having  its  appropriate  dangers  ;  or,  more  generally, 
all  the  day  long  of  the  Jewish  dispensation. 

"  And,"  to  complete  the  clim ax  of  Benjamin's  safe- 
ty, "  he  shall  dwell  between,"  or  upon  "  his  shoul- 
ders." They  who  suppose  that  the  temple  was  erect- 

h  Context,  ver.  3.     'l  Gen.  xliv.  20.  30.  and  xlix.  27. 

*  'HyoMr"/)|xs'vo£  utfo 


SER.  XIII.]       THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  413 

ed  within  the  lot  of  Benjamin,  explain  this  clause  of 
the  Lord's  dwelling  between  or  upon  the  shoulders 
of  Benjamin.  "  The  temple,  the  Lord's  habitation," 
say  they,  "  stood  upon  Benjamin's  hills,  like  a  man's 
head  upon  his  shoulders."  Thus,  poetically,  shoul- 
ders are  ascribed  to  mount  Atlas.  The  words,  how- 
ever, much  more  naturally  suggest  the  very  contrary  ; 
namely,  that  Benjamin  should  dwell  between,  or 
upon  the  Lord's  shoulders ;  and  which,  no  doubt,  is 
the  true  sense  of  the  prediction.  And,  so  under- 
stood, our  text  serves  happily  to  illustrate  and  con- 
firm the  prophecy  of  Jacob,  delivered  more  than  two 
hundred  years  before,  concerning  this  tribe :  Benja- 
min, said  he,  shall  ravin  like  a  wolf;  in  the  morning 
he  shall  devour  the  prey,  and  at  night  he  shall  divide 
the  spoil.  Gen.  xlix.  27.  Benjamin,  therefore,  was 
to  be  preserved  day  and  night.  And  accordingly, 
Moses  in  the  text,  says,  The  Lord  shall  cover  him, 
that  is,  protect  him  all  the  day  long,  meaning  the 
whole  natural  day  of  twenty-four  hours,  and  which 
is  to  be  understood  as  an  emblem  of  the  whole 
Jewish  dispensation.  On  this  subject,  then,  the 
Spirit  of  prophecy  in  Jacob  and  in  Moses,  evidently 
designed  the  same  thing ;  to  wit,  that  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin,  covered  by  the  Lord,  and  secured  and  sup- 
ported between  or  upon  his  shoulders,  should, 
whether  engaged  in  battles  or  participating  in  spoils, 
be  preserved,  with  Judah,  through  all  the  changes, 
and,  with  him,  partake  in  all  the  advantages,  of  the 
Jewish  state.  The  history,  too,  of  this  tribe,  mani- 
festly corresponds  to  the  prophecy  respecting  it. 
For,  after  the  defection  of  the  ten  tribes,  we  find 
Benjamin  constantly  associated  with  Judah  till  the 


414  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.         [sER.  XIII. 

time  of  the  captivity  ;k  and,  the  ten  tribes  being  first 
taken  captive  by  Shatmaneser,^  the  two  tribes,  Ju- 
dah  and  Benjamin,  by  the  authority  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar, were  together  carried  into  Babylon"1 — together 
they  suffered  the  reproaches  and  sorrows  of  the 
seventy  years  appointed  for  their  continuance  there* 
— together  they  were  authorized  by  the  edict  of  Cy- 
rus, and  stirred  up  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  to  return 
to  their  own  landf — together  they  endured  the  toils 
of  rebuilding  the  temple  and  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem"— and  together  they  shared  in  the  comforts 
and  privileges,  as  well  as  in  the  wars  and  ca- 
lamities, which  succeeded  their  restorations  Not 
only  Judah,  therefore,  but  Benjamin  also,  remained 
a  distinct  tribe  till  the  coming  of  Shiloh?  for  the  re- 
jection of  whom,  wrath  came  upon  them  to  the  utter- 
most, through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Romans. 
See  Luke  xxi.  20—24.  and  1  Thess.  ii.  16. 

k  1  Rings  xii.  21,  23.  1  Chron.  xii.  16.  2  Chron.  xi.  12.  xv.  2. 
xxv.  5.  xxxiv.  9.  *  2  Kings  xvii.  3 — 24.  m2  Kings  xxv.  18 — 21. 
2  Chron.  xxxvi.  10—20.  Jer.  lii.  28—30. 

*  Which  years  are  to  be  reckoned  as  commencing  in  the  fourth 
year  of  Jehoiakim,  king  of  Judah,  which  corresponded  to  the  first 
year  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  king  of  Babylon  ;  Jer.  xxv.  1 ;  though 
the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar -,  the  father  and  prede- 
cessor of  the  said  Nebuchadrezzar,  began  a  year  sooner ;  it  being 
in  the  third  year  of  Jehoiakim.  Dan.  i.  1.  According  to  Usher, 
it  was  the  year  of  the  world  3397,  and  before  Christ  607. 

f  This  was  in  the  first  year  of  Cyrus ;  that  is,  in  the  first  year 
that  he  reigned  over  Babylon ;  Ezra  i.  1 — 5 ;  for  he  had  then,  it 
is  believed,  bee,n  king  of  Persia  about  twenty  years. 

n  Ezra,  vi.  1,  to  the  end  of  chapter  vii.  and  Neh.  i.  1.  to  vi.  16. 
«  Neh.  xi.  4.  xii.  34.  p  Gen.  xlix.  10.  Heb.  vii.  14.  Rom.  xi.  1. 
Philip,  iii.  5. 


J5ER.  XIII.]         THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  415 

But  I  hasten  to  consider  the  blessing  of  Benja- 
min, 

II.  TYP.ICAI.LY.  In  this  view  of  the  subject,  our 
thoughts  must  be  transferred  from  Benjamin, 

First,  To  Christ.  Of  him,  this  patriarch  was  a 
type, 

1.  In  each  of  his  two  names.  Rachel,  his  mother, 
in  her  painful  hour,  nay.  "  as  her  soul  was  in  de- 
parting, (for  she  died,)  called  his  name  Ben-Oni,"* 
The  son  of  my  sorrow.  But  Jacob,  not  willing  that 
the  anguish  of  his  beloved  Rachel,  should  rc-pierct 
his  heart,  at  every  call  of  this  son,  changed  his  name 
— "  his  father  called  him  Benjamin,"f  Son  of  the 
right  hand.  See  Gen.  xxxv.  18.  The  whole,  no 
doubt,  involved  a  mystical  design.  Thus  the  Old- 
Testament  Zion  travailed  in  desire  and  prayer,  for 
the  coming  of  Christ1* — and,  on  his  manifestation  in 
the  flesh,  presently  expired ;  that  is,  came  under  the 
threatened  Lo-ammi,  Not  my  people,  and  conse- 
quently ceased  from  being  the  visible  people  of 
God.s  And  though  the  Messiah,  in  the  days  of  his 
flesh,  was  indeed  a  Ben-oni,  a  son  of  sorrow,  yea, 
emphatically  "  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief,''  his  heavenly  Father  changed  his  con? 
dition,  and  therewith  changed  his  name  ;  he  hath 
given  him  a  name  that  is  above  every  name  ;*  where- 
by, like  Benjamin,  he  is  become  The  Son  of  his  Fa- 

*  'Jtorp;  compounded  of  p  Ben  a  son,  p&*  on  pain ,  sorrow,  or 
affliction,  and  the  postfix  '  yod,  forming  the  poss.  pron.  my. 

t  PD'33  ;  from  p  Ben  a  son,  and  pD''  yamin,  or  jamin  the  right 
hand. 

r  Psal.  xiv.  7.  liii,  6.   Is.  lix.  20.     Micah  v.  3.     s  Hosea.  i.  9. 
Matt.  viii.  11,  12;  Rom.  ix.  25—33.  xi.  7—15.     *  Philip.  ii.  9. 

55 


416  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.         [SER.  XIII. 

therms  right  hand.     As  such  he  was  announced  at 
his  resurrection ;  wherein  he  was  declared  to  be  the 
Son  of  God  with  power  ^  with  right-hand  dignity 
and  dominion."     And  having  ascended  to  heaven, 
he  "  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of 
God."w    He  is  the  man  of  God's  right  hand,  and  the 
Son  of  man,  whom,  in  regard  to  his  official  capacity, 
"  he  made  strong  for  himself,"  that  is,  furnished  with 
all  fulness  of  grace  and  strength  requisite  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  great  work,  to  which  he  had 
chosen  and  appointed  him.     To  Christ,  therefore, 
both  God  the  Father  and  his  believing  children  have 
a  fiducial  and  steadfast  respect,  in  all  their  federal 
intercourse.     God  the  Father  has  a  constant  respect 
to  Him  and  to  his  obedience  and  sacrifice,  while  he 
communicates  to  the  elect,  those  blessings  which,  in 
the  COVENANT  of  GRACE,  made  with  Him  in  their  be- 
half, he  stipulated  to  confer  upon  them.*     And  be- 
lievers, in  like  manner,  have  respect  to  Him,  as  their 
Covenantee  and  Advocate,  in  all  they  hope  for,  and, 
therefore,  in  all  they  pray  for.     We  hope  for  all 
needful  grace  by  the  way,  and  for  eternal  life  at  our 
journey's  end,  because  God,  that  cannot  lie,  hath 
given  the  former  to  the  elect  in  Christ,  and  promised 
the  latter  to  them,  through  Christ,  before  the  world 
began.*    And  we  draw  nigh  to  God  in  prayer,  remem- 
bering that  ice  have  an  Advocate  with  the  Father, 
Jesus  Christ  the  righteous — that  he  is  the  Propitia- 
tion for  our  sins — and  that  he  hath  said  to  his  disci- 

u  Rom.  i.  4.  Matt,  xxviii.  18.     w  Heb.  xii.  2. 
*  See  Sejr.  11.  p.  £3  <fcc.     x  %  Tim.  i.  9.  Titus  i.  2. 


SER.  XIII.]         THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  417 

pies,  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  the  Father  in  my 
name,  he  will  give  it  you.y  Hence,  conscious  of 
our  personal  guilt  and  utter  inability  to  make  any 
atonement  to  divine  justice  for  it,  our  cry  to  God  is, 
Let  thy  hand  (meaning  his  hand  of  requirement) 
be  upon  the  man  of  thy  right  hand,  upon  the  Son  of 
man  whom  thou  madest  strong  for  thyself:  so  will 
we  not  go  lack  from  thee — we  will  not  shrink,  dis- 
mayed at  the  consideration  of  thy  holiness  and  righ- 
teousness— but,  in  the  name  and  worthiness  of  the 
Mediator,  the  Day's  man  betwixt  us,  we  will  come 
to  thy  throne  of  grace  with  humble  confidence  ;  and, 
when  sensible  of  languor  and  stupidity,  and  that 
nothing  can  revive  us,  but  the  animating  influence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  which  God  sheds  upon  his  people 
through  Christ,  we  farther  cry,  Quicken  us,  and  we 
will  call  upon  thy  name.1 

This  patriarch,  however,  was  a  type  of  Christ,  not 
only  in  his  names,  but, 

2.  In  his  distinction,  as  an  object  of  God's  dis- 
criminating love.  Was  Benjamin  77^6  beloved  of 
the  Lord  ?  How  much  more  so  is  Christ !  He  is 
"  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,"*  and  is  hence  called  his  dear  Son,  nay,  more 
emphatically,  the  Son  of  his  love,  as  it  is  expressed 
in  the  Greek.*  As  such,  too,  the  Father  himself 
proclaimed  him,  both  at  his  baptism  and  at  his  trans- 
figuration ;  saying,  This  is  my  beloved  Son — adding, 

y  1  John  ii.  1,  2.  John  xvi.  23.  z  Psal.  Ixxx.  17,  18.  Job  ix. 
33.  Rom  viii.  26,  27.  a  John  i.  18. 

.  Col.  i.  13. 


418  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.        [SER.   XIII* 

on  the  former  occasion,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased, 
to  signify  his  entire  approbation  of  him  in  all  he 
said  and  did  ;  and,  on  the  latter,  It-ear  him;  thereby 
enjoining  attention  to  his  doctrine  and  obedience  to 
his  precepts.b  And, 

3.  In  the  signal  instances  of  God's  kindness  to- 
ward him.  Of  Benjnmin,  Moses  said,  The  beloved 
of  the  Lord  shall  dncll  in  safety  by  him.  And  the 
same,  nay,  much  more,  is  true  of  Christ;  who, 
speaking  of  himself  in  his  filial  relation  and  under 
the  character  of  Wisdom,  says,  "  The  Lord,"  Jeho- 
vah the  Father,  "  possessed  mo  in  the  beginning  of 
his  way,  before  his  works  of  old."  And,  in  reference 
to  his  appointment  as?  Mediator,  he  adds,  "  I  was  set 
up  from  everlasting,  from  the  beginning,  or  ever  the 
earth  was.  When  there  wore  no  depths  I  was 
brought  forth ;  when  there  were  no  fountains  abound- 
ing with  water.  Before  the  mountains  were  settled, 
before  the  hills  was  I  brought  forth :  while  as  yet 
he  had  not  made  the  earth,  nor  the  fields,  nor  the 
highest  part  of  the  dust  of  the  world.  When  he 
prepared  the  heavens,  I  was  there :  when  he  set  a 
compass  upon  the  face  of  the  depth :  when  lie  estab- 
lished the  clouds  above :  when  he  strengthened  the 
fountains  of  the  deep :  when  he  gave  to  the  sea  his 
decree,  that  the  waters  should  not  pass  his  com- 
mandment :  when  he  appointed  the  foundations  of 
the  earth :  Then  I  ivas  by  him,  as  one  brought  up 
with  him:  and  I  was  daily  his  delight,  rejoicingal- 
ways  before  him;  rejoicing"  prospective ly,  "  in  the 

h  Matt.  ft.  17.     Mark  ix.  7. 


SER.  XIII.]       THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  419 

habitable  part  of  his  earth :  and  my  delights  were 
with  the  sons  of  men.* 

Nor  was  lie  then  with  the  Father,  merely  as  an 
admiring  Spectator,  or  as  a  fore-seeing  Prophet; 
but  as  "  the  wonderful  COUNSELLOR'' — the  efficient 
WORD — and  the  anointed  SAVIOUR.  As  the  omni- 
scient Counsellor, "  his  understanding  is  infinite  ;"d — 
as  the  essential  Word,  "  all  things  were  made  by 
him;"6 — and,  as  the  appointed  Saviour,  "all  the  na- 
tions," and  therefore,  all  "  the  habitable  parts  of  the 
earth,"  in  the  prevision  of  which  he  was  then  "  re- 
joicing,5' were,  by  covenant-interest,  "  blessed  in 
him."f  As  such,  his  goings  forth  have  been  from  of 
old,  from  everlasting.  Micah  v.  2. 

Nevertheless,  "  being  in  the  form  of  God,"  that  is, 
existing  in  the  essence  and  glory  of  the  divine  na- 
ture, and  therefore,  thinking  it  not  robery — not  any 
derogation  from  that  nature,  "  to  be"  esteemed  and 
worshipped  by  angels  and  men,  as  "  equal  with  God," 
even  the  Father,  he  voluntarily  "  made  himself  of  no 
reputation,"  or  emptied  himself ';  not  of  his  divine 
perfections,  which  are  essential  to  his  Being,  nor  of 
his  mediatorial  fulness,  which  it  pleased  the  Father 
should  dwell  in  him ;  but,  of  the  emanations  of  his 
personal  glory,  which,  if  they  had  shone  forth  upon 
the  world,  must  have  struck  mankind,  not  only  with 
awe  and  reverence,  but,  with  terror  and  consterna- 
tion.—Of  these,  therefore,  to  human  vision,  he  made 
himself  void  or  destitute ;  he  "  took  upon  him  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of 
men;"  that  is,  being,  as  Mediator,  the  Father's  ser- 

«  Prov.  viii.  22—31.    a  Psal.  cxlvii.  5.     'John  i.  3.  Col.  i*  16. 
f  Gen.  xxii.  18. 


420  THE  BLESSING  OP  BENJAMIN,     f  SER.  xnr, 

vant  elect /  by  his  advent  into  the  world,  he  became  so 
in  fact;  and,  his  official  service  being  to  redeem 
men,  as  a  prerequisite  thereto,  he  "  was  made  in  the 
likeness  of  men,"  was  made  a  partaker  of  real  hu- 
man nature ;  yet,  not  by  ordinary,  but  by  miraculous 
generation ;  andfhence,  even  in  this  nature,  is  holy  ;h 
and  "being  in  fashion,"  in  manner  and  condition, 
(sin  excepted,)  "  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himseli"  ac- 
cordingly ;  "  and,"  as  the  Surety  and  Substitute  of  all 
chosen  and  represented  in  him,  "  became  obedient 
unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross."  Philip,  ii. 
6—8.* 

s  Is.  xlii.  1.    h  Luke  i.  35.  Heb.  yii.  26. 

*  Mo£<pij  form,  in  this  place,  does  not  (as  in  Mark  xvi.  12.) 
mean  a  mere  external  appearance ;  and  much  less  an  image.,  or 
picture,  or  pretence,  as  (joo^wtfjg  seems  to  do,  in  Rom.  ii.  20.  and  2 
Tim.  iii.  5 ;  but  an  internal,  ESSENTIAL  form,  or  being.  Ac- 
cording to  Phavorinus,  the  word  denotes  "  That  which  hath  a 
being  of  itself,  and  needs  not  the  assistance  of  another  to  its  being." 
See  Dr.  Hammond,  on  the  place.  So,  in  verse  7,  f*o£<p»jv  dx\x  the 
form  of  a  servant,  means  that  Christ,  as  Mediator,  was  really  the 
Father's  Servant,  and  acted  in  that  capacity.  And  if,  in  ver.  8, 
(f-Xypan  svgs&sis  &s  av^wtfos  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  do  not 
imply  that  he  was  truly  a  man,  it  must  follow  that  he  did  not  as- 
sume real  human  nature,  but  a  mere  show  or  appearance  of  it.  If, 
in  a  wordj  his  being  sv  f*o£(p»j  ©sS  in  the  form  of  God,  do  not  mean 
that  he  was  God — and,  if  his  being  found  o^pari  w£  av^w<?ro?  in 
fashion  as  a  man,  do  not  imply  that  he  was  man,  the  apostle  must 
have  authorized  the  conclusion,  that  he  was  neither  God  nor  man  ; 
whereas,  elsewhere,  he  affirms  him  to  be  both,  even  God  manifest 
in  thejlesh.  1  Tim.  iii.  16. 

If  Christ  be  not  God^  by  nature,  he  must  be  a  mere  creature ; 
and,  if  so,  how  could  he  think  it  not  robery  to  be  equal  with  God, 
meaning  the  Father?  If  Christ  be  a  mere  creature,  whether  hu- 
man, angelic  or  super-angelic,  all  worship  rendered  to  him  must  be 


SER.  XIII.]         THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  421 

While,  therefore,  it  is  evident  that  Christ,  in  his 
divine  nature,  is  the  Father's  equal,1  and  that,  in  per- 
sonal distinction  and  covenant-transaction,  he  was 
with  him  from  everlasting,  or,  from  the  days  of  eter- 
nity ;*  it  is  no  less  evident,  that,  as  Mediator,  he  is 
the  Father's  chosen  Servant,  and,  as  man,  his  depen- 
dant creature. 

This  view  of  the  Redeemer's  mysterious  person 
and  condition,  accounts  for  the  Father's  promises  to 
uphold  him  during  his  toils  and  sufferings,  and  to 
render  him  successful  in  his  work,  and  triumphant  in 
his  warfare  ;k  also,  for  his  own  confident  reliance  on 


idolatry.  But  we  know  it  to  be  the  divine  will,  "  that  all  men 
should  honor  the  Son  even  as  they  honor  the  Father."  John  v. 
23.  And  "  when  he  (God  the  Father,)  bringeth  in  the  First-be- 
gotten into  the  world,  he  saith,  And  let  all  the  angels  of  God  wor- 
ship him."  Ileb.  i.  6.  Accordingly,  without  ever  receiving  a  di- 
vine rebuke  for  it,  both  saints  and  angels  have  honoured  him  with 
such  titles  and  such  worship  as  are  due  to  none  but  God.  His  dis- 
ciples thus  worshipped  him  "  in  the  days  of  his  flesh;"  Matt.  xiv. 
33.  Thomas,  by  no  means  credulous,  honored  him  with  the  title 
of  My  Lord  and  my  God.  John  xx.  28.  And  the  angels  that 
never  sinned,  and  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  worship 
him  in  heaven  ;  "  saying  with  a  loud  voice,  Worthy  is  the  LAMB 
that  was  slain,  to  receive  power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and 
strength,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  blessing,"  Rev.  v.  8 — 12. 

Unless,  therefore,  we  can  admit  the  absurdity,  t1  ^t  God  himself, 
contrary  to  his  own  express  command,  (Exo.  xx.  2 — 5.)  has  sanc- 
tioned idolatry  both  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  Christ  must  possess 
that  nature,  which,  in  Him,  as  in  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  is 
"  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever."  Rom.  ix.  5. 


1  John  x.  30.  Zech.  xiii.  7.     *  ^fxsgwv  a«wvo£ .  Septuagint; 
di  v.  2.  Comp.  John  i.  18.     k  Is.  xlii.  1—7. 


422  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.        [SER.  XIII. 

these  promises,!  and  his  fervent  and  fiducial  plead- 
ings for  their  accomplishment.''"1 

Accordingly,  as  Christ,  in  his  official  capacity,  has 
ever  been  the  object  of  the  Father's  highest  confi- 
dence and  approbation,"  so,  in  his  dependent  miture, 
he  has  ever  enjoyed  the  Father's  covenanted  protec- 
tion and  sustentation.0  For,  being  by  filial  relation, 
superlatively  The  beloved  of  the  Lord,  lie  constantly 
dwells  in  safety  by  him;  the  divine  perfections 
being  the  Shield  that  covers  him,  and  the  shoulders 
that  uphold  him,  as  man  and  Mediator. 

Thus  he  was  covered  and  sustained  all  the  day 
long,  even  perpetually,  while,  as  the  Antitype  of  Ben- 
jamin,1' he  ravened  his  prey,  to  wit,  his  own  and  his 
people's  enmies  ;  and  which  he  did,  not  by  devouring 
them,  but  by  foiling  and  despoiling  them;  and 
"  having  spoiled  principalities  and  powers,  he  made 
a  show  of  them  openly,  triumphing  over  them  in 
himself?*  And  though,  in  the  conflict,  Satan  was 
permitted  to  "  bruise  his  heel,"  his  inferior  nature  ; 
(for  through  his  instigation,  Christ  was  put  to  death 
in  the  flesh;**)  yet  even  this,  "  by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,"  was  the  ap- 
pointed means  of  Satan's  defeat,  and  the  stipulated 
condition  of  phrist's  victory  and  of  the  church's  sal- 
vation ;  for,  *  through  death,"  Christ  (for  all  he 
represented)  virtually  "  destroyed  him  that  had  the 
power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil ;"  and  was,  thereupon, 

1  Is.  xlix,  5—13.  1.  4—9.  ra  Psal.  xxii.  and  Ixix.  Matt.  xxvi. 
36—44.  Heb.  v.  7.  »  Is.  xlii.  31.  xlix.  3.  Zech.  vi.  12,  13. 
«  Is.  lii.  13-15.  p  Gen.  xlix.  27.  *  £v  o*r*.  Col.  ii.  15.  <*  1  Pet. 
iii.  18. 


SfiR.  XIII.]         THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  423 

"  exalted  to  be  a  PRINCE  and  a  SAVIOUR,  to  give  re- 
pentance to  Israel,  and  forgiveness  of  sins."r 

In  like  manner,  too,  Christ  enjoys  the  Father's 
protection,  support,  and  concurrence,  in  his  cause  and 
reign ;  while,  by  the  word  and  Spirit,  he  is  dividing  the 
spoil  with  the  strong,  that  is,  with  Satan,  the  strong 
man  armed.11  For  reasons  known  only  to  Him  who 
alone  could  have  prevented  it,  Satan  was  suffered  to 
procure  the  fall  of  Adam  and  of  all  his  posterity  in 
him  ;  whereby,  in  effect,  he  made  a  spoil  of  all  man- 
kind ;  having  destroyed  in  the  human  heart  the  prin- 
ciple of  obedience  to  God,  and  established  there  his 
own  throne  of  iniquity.  Hence,  by  usurpation,  he  is 
"  the  god  of  this  worldw — the  spirit  that  now  work- 
eth  in  the  children  of  disobedience"1 — and,  as  such, 
"  keepeth  his  palace,"  the  deceived  and  deceit- 
ful heart,  "  and  his  goods,''  the  faculties  of  the  cap- 
tured soul,  "  are  in  peace,"  as  to  any  anxiety  or  ef- 
fort to  regain  its  release  from  his  dark  dominion ; 
"  but  when  a  stronger  than  he,"  namely  Christ, 
"  cometh  upon  him,  and  overcometh  him,"  by  the  pow- 
er of  his  Spirit,  thereby  quickening  the  soul,  enlight- 
ening the  understanding,  changing  the  heart,  and 
renewing  the  will  of  the  hitherto  voluntary  slave, 
"  he  taketh  from  him  (the  usurper)  all  his  armor 
wherein  he  trusted,"  consisting  of  moral  death, 
blindness  and  stupidity,  together  with  mental  enmity 
and  rebellion  against  God,  and  wilful  ignorance  and 
disbelief  of  his  word — the  means  by  which  Satan 
maintains  his  throne  in  the  unregenerate,  and  there- 

r  Gen.  iii.  15.  Acts  ii.  23.  Heb.  ii.  14.  Acts  v.  31.  u  Is.  liii.  12. 
w  2  Cor,  iv.  4.  *  Eph.  ii.  2. 

56 


424  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.         [SER.  XIII. 

fore,  the  armor  in  which  he  trusteth  for  retaining  his 
subjects.  These  removed,  the  charm  is  broken  and 
the  captive  liberated.  Herein,  Christ  sees  of  the 
travail  of  his  soul  and  is  satisfied  ;  his  people  being 
made  willing  in  the  day  of  his  power/  Thus  "  he 
divideth  the  spoils,"2  that  is,  makes  a  division  among 
the  fallen  sons  and  daughters  of  Adam,  the  spoils  of 
Satan,  calling  and  claiming,  as  his  own,  those  of  all 
generations  and  of  all  nations,  who,  by  covenant- 
grant,  and  redemption-price,  belong  to  him.a  These, 
he  purifies  unto  himself,  a  peculiar  people,  zealous 
of  good  works?  and  in  the  great  day  of  his  and 
their  mutual  triumph,b  will  present  them  to  himself,  a 
glorious  church,  not  having  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or 
any  such  thing.  Eph.  v.  27. 

Our  thoughts,  therefore,  being  thus  transferred 
from  Benjamin  to  Christ,  must  be  extended, 

Secondly,  To  the  Church,  the  mystical  body  of 
Christ.  For,  of  the  body,  as  well  as  of  the  Head,  Ben- 
jamin was  variously  typical. 

1.  Like  Benjamin,  all  the  members  of  Christ's 
mystical  body,  whether  considered  collectively  or 
severally,  are  The  beloved  of  the  Lord.  They  were 
such  from  everlasting  and  must  remain  such  unto 
everlasting :  for  He,  the  Lord  who  loves  them,  will 
rest  in  his  love.c  Nor  can  any  reason  be  assigned 
why  he  thus  loves  them,  but  his  own  sovereign  will. 
Hence  the  extraordinary  manner  in  which  he  loves 
them :  "  Behold,  what  manner  of  love  the  Father 
hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  the 
sons  of  God  !"d  It  is  a  manner  of  love,  which  has 

y  Is.  liii.  11.  Psal.  ex.  3.  *  Luke  xi.  2t,  22.  a  John  vi.  37—40. 
Rev.  v.  9.    b  2  Thess.  i.  10.    '  Zeph.  iii.  17.     d  1  John  iii.  1. 


SER.  XIII.]       THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  425 

no  parallel  among  creatures  ;  for,  as  no  creature  can 
love  whom  he  will,  so  no  creature,  strictly  speaking, 
can  bestow  his  love  upon  another.  Yet,  after  this 
manner  God  hath  loved,  and  will  for  ever  love  his 
people.6  And,  as  his  love  for  them  is  wonderful  in 
its  manner,  so  atao  in  its  effects.  Among  these,  are 
— his  choice  of  them  in  Christ* — his  redemption  of 
them  by  Christ^ — his  calling  and  drawing  of  them 
to  Christ* — his  justification,  pardon  and  sanctifica- 
tion  of  them  through  Christ^  and  his  final  glorifica- 
tion of  them  with  Christ* 

2.  As  typified  in  the  Israelite  under  consideration, 
the  beloved  of  the  Lord,  in  their  successive  genera- 
tions, become  severally  distinguished  by  a'new  name. 
God,  it  is  true,  had,  from  eternity,  chosen  and  predesti- 
nated them  to  the  adoption  of  children  to  himself;1  ne- 
vertheless, in  their  descent  from  Adam,  they  are  all  by 
nature  children  of  wrath  even  as  others.m  By  our 
natural  birth,  every  one  is  a  Benoni,  a  child  of  sor- 
row. Nay,  the  world  into  which  we  are  born  is  a 
Bochim,*  a  place  of  weeping;  and  the  carnal,  as  being 
enemies  to  God  in  mind,  and  manifesting  this  en- 
mity by  wicked  works,"  are,  to  the  saints,  objects  of 
sorrow  and  mourning,  and  not  of  joy  and  rejoicing. 
Did  Rachel  call  her  son  Benoni,  on  account  of  the 
anguish  and  sorrow  which  he  had  occasioned  her  1 
Let  it  remind  us  of  the  anguish  and  sorrow  felt  by 
the  church,  for  those  who  are  born  only  after  the 

e  Jer.  xxxi.  3.  <"  Eph.  i.  4.  ff  Psal.  cxi.  9.  I  John  iv.  9,  10. 
h  Eph.  ii.  4,  5.  John  vi.  44.  J  Rom.iii.  24.  Acts  x.  43.  1  Cor. 
i.  30.  k  Rom.  viii.  30.  Col.  iii.  4.  *  Eph.  i.  4,  5.  *  See  Judges 
ii.  4,  5.  m  Eph.  ii.  3.  n  Col.  i.  21. 


426  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.         [SER.  XIII. 

flesh,  and  of  the  solicitude  and  ardor  with  which  she 
travails,  in  desire  and  prayer  for  the  new-birth  of 
God's  elect.0  In  this  travail,  gospel-ministers  are 
deeply  exercised  :  My  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to 
God  for  Israel,  said  Paul,  is  that  they  might  be 
saved.*  And  having  once  believed  that  his  minis- 
terial labor,  in  answer  to  his  many  prayers,  had 
been  blessed  to  the  saving  conversion  of  the  Gala- 
tian  professors,  when  he  found  them,  through  the 
influence  of  judaizing  teachers,  greatly  drawn 
away  from  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  the  same 
agonizing  pangs,  which  he  had  felt  for  them  in  their 
heathenish  state,  returned  upon  him;  exciting  him 
to  pray  for  them  and  write  to  them,  hoping  to  be 
instrumental  in  re-forming  Christ  in  them ;  that  is, 
in  reclaiming  them  to  a  cordial  embrace  of  Christ, 
a  consistent  profession  of  his  doctrine,  and  a  due 
observance  of  his  pre.cepts.  Thus  moved,  how  pathet- 
ically did  he  address  them!  My  little  children,  said 
he,  of  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again,  until  Christ 
be  formed  in  you.  I  desire  to  be  present  with  you 
&c.q  O  for  more  of  this  travailing  spirit  in  the 
church  and  in  her  ministers  !  Then  might  we  hope, 
in  more  instances,  to  see  Christ  formed  in  sinners, 
and  re-formed  in  professors. 

But,  to  return.  Jacob,  the  father  of  Benoni, 
changed  his  name  into  Benjamin ;  and,  answerably 
thereto,  Jehovah,  the  adoptive  Father  of  the  elect, 
at  their  effectual  vocation,  makes  known  to  them 
their  filial  relation  to  himself.  For,  having  convin- 

0  Is.  Ixvi.  8.     Ezek.  xxxvi.  37.     p  Rom.  x.  1.     <»  Gal.  iv.  19. 


SER.  XIII.]  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  427 

ced  them,  that  by  nature  and  desert  they  are  chil- 
dren of  wrath,  and  having  made  them  partakers  of 
a  new  and  holy  principle,  called  the  divine  nature  ;T 
he,  thereupon,  sends  forth  the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into 
their  hearts,  crying  Abba,  Father.5  Herein  he  gives 
to  each  a  white  stone,  that  is,  open  acquital,  and  in 
the  stone  a  NEW  NAME  written,  to  wit,  the  evidence  of 
adoption,  which  always  accompanies  the  evidence 
of  pardon  ;  and  which  name  no  mu/t  knoweth,  saving 
he  thatreceivethit.  Rev.  ii.  17.  Comp.  1  Johniii.  1. 
And,  as  Rachel's  son,  after  the  change  of  his  name, 
is  never  called  Benoni,  but  always  Benjamin;  so 
the  elect,  after  their  calling  and  faith  in  Christ,  are 
never,  as  before,  called  children  of  wrath,  but  con- 
stantly the  children  of  God.1  The  reasons  are  ob- 
vious :  Being  children,  they  are  heirs,  heirs  of  God 
and  joint-heirs  icith  Christ;" — God  hath  sworn,  that 
he  will  not  be  wroth  with  them  ;w — they  are  justified 
from  all  things,* — and  shall  not  come  into  condemna- 
tion* They  are  become  visibly  God's  Benjamins, 
his  right-hand  ones — heirs  to  the  right-hand  bles- 
sings of  his  grace  on  earth,  and  to  a  place  at  his 
right  hand  in  heaven,  where  are  pleasures  for  ever- 
more.* And, 

3.  Like  Benjamin,  the  members  of  Christ's  mys- 
tical body  are  all  the  constant  and  peculiar  care  of  a 
covenant-keeping  God.  They  dwell  safely  by  him. 
They  dwell  in  Christ  and  therefore  by,  that  is,  near 
the  Father ;  near  his  heart ;  being  always  interested 

*  2  Pet.  i.  4.  8  Gal.  iv.  6.  «  Rom.  viii.  16.  Gal.  iii.  26.  «  Rom. 
viii.  17.  w  Is.  liv.  9, 10.  *  Acts  xiii.  39.  y  John  v.  24.  *  Psal. 
xvi.  11. 


428  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  [SER.  XIII. 

in  his  love,  from  which  nothing  can  separate  them. 
See  Rom.  viii.  38,  39.     They  dwell  in  Christ,  and 
therefore  dwell  safely,  though  so  near  to  God,  who 
is  a  consuming  fire!"     They  dwell  in  Christ,  and 
therefore  are  as  secure  as  He  ;  their  life  being  hid 
with  Christ  in  God.b     The  Lord  shall  cover  them, 
as  he  is  said  to  cover  Benjamin,  all  the  day  long. 
In  point  of  Justification,  Christ  himself,  who  is  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever,c  is  perpetually 
our  covering,  as  he  is  unchangeably  THE  LORD  OUR 
RIGHTEOUSNESS.*     As  found  in  him,  even  the  attri- 
bute of  divine  Justice  pleads  our  cause  ;  for  God  is 
just,  and  the  Justifier  of  him  that  believeth  in  Jesus* 
And,  in  point  of  safe-keeping  from  enemies,   the 
church,  by  the  provisions  of  a  covenant  ordered  in 
all  things  and  sure,  is  rendered  absolutely  invulner- 
able.    Her  foundation  bids  defiance  to  the  gates  of 
hellf — her  bulwarks  are  salvation  itself^ — And  the 
very  perfections  of  her  Founder,  are  both  her  defense 
and  her  glory  :  "  For  I,  saith  JEHOVAH,  will  be  unto 
her  a  wall  of  fire  round  about,  and  will  be  the  glory 
in  the  midst  of  her."    Zech.  ii.  5.     This  multiform 
favor,  too,  in  all  its  amplitude  and  efficiency  will  be 
continued  to  the  church  all  the  day  long — during  all 
the  course,  and  amid  all  the  changes  of  her  militant 
state  :  for,  "  as  the  mountains  are  round  about  Jeru- 
salem, so  the  LORD  is  round  about  his  people. ...even 
for  ever."  Psal.  cxxv.  2.     Nay,  like  Benjamin,  they 
shall  dwell  between  his  shoulders;  each  shall  enjoy 
the  protection,  the  supports,  and  the  supplies,  both 

aHeb.  xii.29.     b  Col.  iii.  3.     c  Heb.  xiii.  8.     d  Jer.  xxiii.  6. 
•  Rom.  iii.  26.    f  Matt.  xvi.  13.     s  Is.  xxvi.  1. 


SER  XIII.]        THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  429 

of  his  grace  and  his  providence  ;  He  shall  dwell  on 
high :  his  place  of  defense  shall  be  the  munitions  of 
rocks :  bread  shall  be  given  him ;  his  waters  shall  be 
sure.  Is.  xxxiii.  16.  Happy,  of  a  truth,  is  that  peo- 
ple that  is  in  such  a  case ;  yea,  happy  is  that  people, 
whose  God  is  the  Lord.  Psal.  cxliv.  15. 

But  the  all-important  question,  with  each  of  us, 
my  dear  hearers,  should  be,  Am  lone  of  that  people  ? 
Am  I  among  the  beloved  of  the  Lord? 

Now,  to  excite  you  to  self-examination,  and  to  assist 
the  anxious  in  pursuing  it,  I  shall,  by  way  of 

CONCLUSION, 

briefly  advert  to  some  of  the  scripture-evidences  of  a 
gracious  state.  If  in  this  state,  we  may  know  it, 
and  thereby  our  election, 

1.  By  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the  gospel 
has  come  to  such,  and  the  change  thereby  produced 
in  their  lives ;  these  being  characteristic  fruits  of 
effectual  calling,  and  effectual  calling  being  a  demon- 
strative evidence  of  antecedent  election.  Accord- 
ingly, from  these  facts,  the  apostle  Paul  taught  be- 
lievers to  infer  their  election  :  knowing,  brethren  be- 
loved, your  election  of  God — How  1  Not  by  reading 
the  record  thereof  in  the  book  of  life,  nor  by  a  voice 
proclaiming  it  from  heaven ;  but,  by  the  influence  of 
the  gospel  upon  their  hearts  and  lives ; — -for  our  gos- 
pel (that  which  he  and  the  other  apostles  preached) 
came  not  unto  you  in  word  only,  but  also  in  power, 
and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  much  assurance — as- 
surance of  its  divine  authority,  and  of  their  personal 
interest  in  the  Salvation  which  it  reveals ;  where- 
upon, (having  reminded  them  of  apostolic  example 


430  THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  [sER,  XIII, 

among  them)  he  declares  their  conversion  in  con- 
formity to  it:  ye  became  followers  of  us  and  of  the 
Lord,  Sfc.  I  Thess.  i.  4—10. 

2.  By  our  disposition  of  mind  toward  God*  The 
carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  him;  Rom.  viii.  7  ; 
if,  therefore,  we  love  him,  it  is  because  he,  according 
to  his  covenant  of  grace,  hath  given  us  a  new  hearty 
and  put  a  new  Spirit  within  us.  Ezek.  xxxvi.  26- 
"  But,"  says  one,  "  may  I  not  love  God,  though  not 
interested  in  his  love  to  his  people"  ?  No.  You  may 
love  a  creature  who  does  not  love  you ;  but  none 
ever  loved  or  ever  will  love  God,  but  they  who  are 
loved  of  him.  For  none  can  love  him  while  unre- 
generate,  and  regeneration  is  of  God,  and  is  an 
effect  of  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loves  his  cho- 
sen, even  while  dead  in  sin.  Eph.  ii.  4,  5.  We  love 
him,  therefore,  (if  at  all,)  because  he  first  loved  us. 
1  John  iv.  19.  Among  the  evidences  of  love  to  God, 
are — 1.  A  desire  after  communion  with  him:  As  the 
hartpanteth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  panteth  my 
soul  after  thee,  O  God,  8$c.  Psal.  xlii.  1,  2,  and  Ixiii. 
1—8. — 2.  A  preference  of  his  courts  and  worship, 
above  all  other  places  and  employments :  Lord,  I 
have  loved  the  habitation  of  thy  house,  and  the  place 
where  thine  honor  dwelleth.  For  a  day  in  thy  courts 
is  better  than  a  thousand,  any  where  else  upon  earth. 
I  had  rather  be  a  door-keeper  in  the  house  of  my  God, 
than  to  dwell  in  the  tents  of  wickedness.  Psal.  xxvi. 
8.  Ixxxiv.  10.— 3.  A  holy  delight  experienced  in 
meditating  on  him  and  his  ways  :  In  the  multitude 
of  my  thoughts  within  me,  thy  comforts  delight  my 
soul.  Psal.  xciv.  19. — 4.  A  habitual  association  with 
those  devoted  to  him :  lam  a  companion  of  all  them 


SER.  XIII.]      THE  BLESSING  OF  BENJAMIN.  431 

that  fear  thee,  and  of  them  that  keep  thy  precepts. 
Psal.  cxix.  63. — 5.  A  sadness  of  soul  when  deserted  of 
his  gracious  presence  :  Thou  didst  hide  thy  face,  and 
1  was  troubled.  Psal.  xxx.  7.  And — 6.  A  careful  ob- 
servance of  his  holy  precepts :  This  is  the  love  of  God, 
that  is,  the  effect  and  evidence  of  it,  that  we  keep  his 
commandments.  1  John  v.  3.  If  in  a  gracious  state 
it  may  be  known, 

3.  By  our  love  to  the  saints  :    We  know  that  we 
have  passed  from  death  unto  life,  because  we  love  the 
brethren.     Every  one  that  so  loveth,  is  born  of  God 
and  knoweth  God.  1  John  iii.  14.  iv.  7. 

4.  By  our  choice  of  teachers.      For  an  apostle, 
speaking  of  carnal  teachers,  says,  They  are  of  the 
world :  therefore  speak  they  of  the  world,  and  the 
world  heareth  them.     But,  of  himself  and  his  minis- 
tering brethren,  he  adds,  We  are  of  God :  he  that 
knoweth  God  heareth  us ;   he  that  is  not  of  God 
heareth  not  us.     Hereby  know  we  the  Spirit  of  truth 
and  the  spirit  of  error;   both  in  teachers  and  in 
hearers.  1  John  iv.  5,  6. 

5.  By  the  esteem  we  are  in  with  the  carnal  world  : 
If  ye  were  of  the  world,  said  Christ  to  his  disciples, 
the  world  would  love  his  own ;  buta  because  ye  are 
not  of  the  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you,  and,  pur- 
suant thereto,  called  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore 
the  world  hateth  you.  John  xv.  19. 

6.  By  those  very  things  which  most  grieve  and  dis- 
courage us ;  as,  for  instance,  a  law  in  our  members 
warring  against  the  law  of  our  mind ;  Rom.  vii.  23  ; 
vain  thoughts,  which  we  hate,  knowing   that  the 
thought  of  foolishness  is  sin;  Psal.  cxix.  113,  and 

57 


432  THE  BLESSING  OP  BENJAMIN.       [sER.  XIII. 

Prov.  xxiv.  9 ;  the  imperfection  of  our  best  endea- 
vors to  do  the  will  of  God  ;  Rom.  vii.  15 — 21  ;  and 
especially  a  sense  of  that  body  of  sin,  which  we  carry 
about  with  us  :  hence,  we  that  are  in  this  tabernacle 
do  groan,  being  burdened ;  2  Cor.  v.  4.  For,  in  a 
spiritual  as  well  as  in  a  natural  sense,  even  a  groan 
is  a  sign  of  life,  and  in  the  latter,  a  sign  of  indwelling 
grace  ;  it  being  peculiar  to  those  who  have  received 
the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  thus  to  groan  within 
themselves.  Rom.  viii.  23. 

7.  By  a  persevering  trust  in  God,  under  all  his 
most  afflicting  and  trying  dispensations  :  Though  he 
slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him.  Job  xiiL  15.     And, 

8.  By  aspirations,  occasionally  at  least,  after  the 
holiness  and  happiness  of  the  heavenly  state  :  we 
groan  earnestly  desiring  to  be  clothed  upon  with  our 
house  which  is  from  heaven ;  having  a  desire  to  de- 
part and  to  bewith  Christ,  which  is  far  better.  2  Cor. 
v.  2.  and  Philip,  i.  23. 

Thus  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  giving,  in  the  Scriptures, 
the  marks  of  a  gracious  state,  and  the  requisite  di- 
rections for  a  life  of  faith,  hath  furnished  us,  my  be- 
lieving hearers,  both  with  a  clew  to  self-examination  9 
and  a  rule  for  all  holy  and  useful  living  ;  and  as  many 
as  possess  those  marks,  and  walk  according  to  this 
rule, peace  be  on  them,  and  mercy,  and  upon  the  Is- 
rael of  God.h  Amen. 

h  Gal.  vi.  16. 


SERMON  XIV, 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JOSEPH, 


JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CH&IST. 

Deut.  xxxiii.  13 — 17.  And  of  Joseph  he,  said,  Blessed  of  the 
LORD  be  his  land,  for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew, 
and  for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath.  And  for  the  precious 
fruits  brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for  the  precious  things  put 
forth  by  the  moon.  And  for  the,  chief  things  of  the  ancient 
mountains,  and  for  the  precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills.  And 
for  the  precious  things  of  the  earth  and  fullness  thereof;  and 
for  the  good-will  of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush  ;  let  the  blessing 
come  upon  the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon  the  top  of  the  head  of 
him  that  was  separated  from  his  brethren.  His  glory  is  like 
the  firstling  of  his  bullock,  and  his  horns  are  like  the  horns  of 
unicorns ;  with  them  he  shall  push  the  people  together  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  :  and  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of  Ephraim, 
and  they  are  the  thousands  of  Manasseh. 


"  PROPHECY,"  saith  an  apostle,  "  came  not  in  old 
time  by  the  will  of  man  ;*  but  holy  men  of  God,"  of 
whom  Moses  was  one,  "  spake  as  they  were  moved 
by  the  Holy  Ghost."a  Prophecy,  therefore,  was 
God's  declaring  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and 
from  ancient  times  the  things  that  are  not  yet  done, 
saying,  My  counsel  shall  stand,  and  I  will  do  all 
my  pleasure*  Hence  the  evident  agreement  be- 
tween the  predictions  of  Scripture  and  the  history 
both  of  the  church  and  of  the  world. 

But,  waiving  this  general  view  of  the  subject,  let 

*  See  Ser.  1.  Note  on  p.  37.      »  2  Pet.  i.  21.     b  Is.  xlvi.  10. 

58 


434  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  SEK.  XIV. 


us  notice  the  truth  of  the  remark  in  relation  to  the 
case  immediately  before  us.  Canaan,  as  I  have 
.heretofore  reminded  you,  was  divided  among  the 
tribes  of  Israel  by  lot  ;  the  result  of  which  could  be 
nothing  less  than  the  developement  of  the  divine 
purpose  in  relation  thereto  ;  for  the  whole  disposing 
of  the  lot  is  of  the  LORD.C 

By  this  division  the  portion  of  Benjamin  lay  be- 
tween the  portion  of  Judah  and  that  of  Joseph. 
See  Josh,  xviii.  11.  The  portion  of  Joseph,  there- 
fore, as  a  matter  of  course,  lay  next  to  that  of 
Benjamin;  both  commencing  at  Jordan,  and  the 
southern  part  of  the  former  joining  the  northern 
part  of  the  latter  near  Jericho,  which  belonged  to 
Benjamin.  See  Josh.  xvi.  1.  and  xviii.  12.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  Holy  Spirit,  who  searcheih  all  things, 
yea,  the  deep  things  of  God,  moved  Moses,  as 
appears  from  our  text,  to  assign  the  same  relative 
situation  to  this  tribe,  by  prophecy,  which  God  would 
assign  to  it  by  lot. 

In  blessing  Joseph,  as  in  blessing  Levi,  Moses  is 

unusually  diffuse  :    his  heart  being  filled  to  over- 

flowing, his  lips,  which  he  had  complained  were 

uncircumcised,  became  eloquent  to  admiration.  And 

of  Joseph  he  said,  Blessed  of  the  LORD  be  his  land, 

for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew,  and 

for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath.     And  for  the 

precious  fruits  brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for 

the  precious  things  put  forth  by  the  moon;  fyc.  $$c. 

In  three  subsequent  discourses,  I  design,  as  the 

Lord  may  give  ability,  to  explain  this  blessing,  both 

literally  and  spiritually,  according  to  the  terms  in 

which  it  is  expressed.     At  present,  my  sole  object 

c  Prov.  xvi.  33. 


SER.  XIV.]  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF   CIIRIST._  435 

is  to  show  that  Joseph  was  a  type  of  Christ.  This, 
I  am  aware,  some  have  doubted,  because,  say  they, 
Christ  is  no  where  in  the  New  Testament,  likened 
to  Joseph,  as  he  is  to  Judah,  to  Benjamin,  and  to 
some  others  among  the  patriarchs.  But,  if  this 
omission  proves  any  thing,  it  is  that  the  resemblance 
of  Joseph  to  Christ,  is  so  strongly  marked  in  his 
history,  as  not  to  require  any  such  clew  to  the  dis- 
covery of  the  fact. 

His  very  name  suggests  it:  Joseph  is  from  ao* 
yasaph  to  add,  to  increase  Sfc. ;  which  can  hardly 
fail  of  leading  our  thoughts  to  HIM  who,  in  his  hu- 
man nature,  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and 
in  favor  with  God  and  mand — of  whom,  as  to  his 
fame  and  followers,  the  Baptist  said,  He  must  in- 
crease*— and  of  the  increase  of  whose  government 
and  peace,  as  Mediator,  not  only  the  prophet  Isaiah 
but  the  angel  Gabriel  also,  affirms  There  shall  be  no 
end.f 

Who,  among  those  who  have  received  an  unction 
from  the  Holy  One,  can  read  the  history  of  Joseph, 
and  especially  the  numerous  evidences  therein  re- 
corded of  the  special  interest  which  he  had  in  his 
father's  love/  without  being  reminded  of  Christ; 
concerning  whom  his  heavenly  Father  once  and 
again  proclaimed  from  "the  excellent  glory,  This 
is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  lam  well  pleased?"11 

Was  Joseph,  according  to  Gen.  xxxix.  6,  a  goodly 
person,  and  wellfavoredl  and  did  he,  according  to 
Gen.  xxxvii.  2,  excel  all  his  brethren  in  filial  love  and 
moral  virtue?  Let  us  remember,  that  in  all  this,  he 
was  but  a  shadow  of  HIM  who  is  the  chiefest  among 

d  Luke  ii.  52.  .'John  iii.  30.  f  Is.  ix.  7.  and  Luke  i.  32,  33. 
B  Gen.  xxxvii.  3.  h  Matt.  iii.  17.  Mark  ix.  7. 


436  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.         [sER.  XIV. 

ten  thousand,  yea,  altogether  lovely.1  Christ,  con- 
sidered only  as  a  man,  had  no  moral  blemish ;  in 
nature,  he  was  holy  and  undefiled,  and  in  life,  he 
did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth.* 
Well,  therefore,  might  the  Psalmist,  addressing  him, 
say,  Thou  art  fairer  than  the  children  of  men,  of 
whom  all  have  sinned;1 — yea,  he  is  fairer  than  any  of 
those  upon  earth  whom  he  deigns  to  call  his  breth- 
ren;™ for,  If  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  our- 
selves, and  the  truth  is  not  in  us.* 

Joseph  being  richly  endued  with  the  Spirit  of  wis- 
dom and  revelation,  Pharaoh,  whose  supernatural 
dreams  he  interpreted,  called  him  Taphnath-Paan- 
eah,*  that  is,  One  to  whom  hidden  things  are  re- 
vealed, or  A  revealer  of  secrets,  an  expounder  of 

1  Cant.  v.  10.  16.  k  Heb.  vii.  26.  1  Pet;  ii.  22.  1  Psal.  xlv.  2. 
Rom.  iii.  23.  m  Heb.  ii.  11.  n  1  John  i.  8. 

*  n^3  r033f  Tsapenath-pangneach ;  which  some  consider  a 
mere  title  of  honour  and  authority,  conferred  on  Joseph,  by 
Pharaoh  ;  but  Moses  calls  it  a  name.  See  Gen.  xli.  45.  Whether 
the  words  of  which  this  name  is  compounded  are  Hebrew  or  Coptic, 
is  uncertain. 

If  Hebrew,  r033f,  from  |3¥  tsephan,  to  hide  or  conceal  may 
mean  things  or  persons  that  arc  hidden  or  secret.  See  Psal.  xvii. 
14.  and  Ixxxiii.  4.  And  my3  from  JJ3"  yaphang,  to  shine,  to  irradiate 
or  enlighten, (Job.  iii.  4.)  and  HJ  noach,  rest  or  comfort  t(an  abbrevia- 
tion of  CDnj  necham,  to  comfort  by  giving  rest  and  tranquility,) 
may  signify  To  illuminate  with  comfort.  See  Gen.  v.  29.  Is.  lix. 
13.  inter  al.  Hence  the  name  in  question,  compounded  of  the 
two  words  thus  derived  and  defined,  may  import  One  who  gives 
comfort,  quietness  and  satisfaction,  by  revealing  and  explaining 
things  hidden  and  mysterious.  To  the  same  purport  this  name 
has  been  interpreted  by  many.  The  Targums  of  JONATHAN  and 
ONKELOS  define  it  so  nearly  alike,  that  the  definition  of  the  one 
implies  that  of  the  other:  according  to  JONATHAN,  it  means  A  re- 
vealer of  secrets,  and  according  to  ONKELOS,  'One  to  whom  hid- 
den things  are  revealed  ;  without  which  he  could  not  be  a  revealer 


SER.  XIV.]         JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  437 

mysteries.  Herein  Joseph  was  obviously  a  type  of 
Christ ;  in  whom  (till  revealed  by  him)  are  hid  all 
the  treasures  of  icisdom  and  knowledge,0  and  who, 
as  such,  was  counted  worthy  to  take  the  book,  the 
roll  of  the  divine  decrees,  and  to  open  the  seals 
thereof.  Rev.  v.  9. 

Joseph,  though  innocent,  was  accused  of  very  base 
conduct,  and  suffered  many  hard  things.  Distin- 
guished by  tokens  of  his  father's  love,  his  brethren 
envied  and  hated  him  and  could  not  speak  peaceably 
unto  him.p  When  he  visited  them  in  the  wilderness, 
though  sent  by  his  father  and  on  an  errand  of  kind- 
ness, they  reviled  him,  at  his  approach,  and  conspired 
to  slay  him,  on  his  arrival;*1  and  though  prevailed 
on  by  Reuben,  not  to  execute  the  bloody  design ;  yet, 
at  the  instance  of  Judah,  they  sold  him  to  a  caravan 
of  Arabs,  chiefly  Midianites  and  Ishmaelites  who, 
by  divine  providence,  were  at  that  juncture  passing 
by  on  their  way  to  Egypt,  whither  they  took  him  and 
"  sold  him  to  Potapher,  an  officer  of  Pharaoh's,  and 

of  them.  LEVI  renders  the  words  A  revealer  of  hidden  things. 
Linga  Sacra  under  HJya.  JEROM,  indeed,  renders  it  The  Saviour 
of  the  world;  though  without  etymon  or  reason. 

But,  as  the  name  under  consideration  was  given  by  Pharaoh, 
there  is  much  reason  to  believe,  that  he  gave  it  in  his  own  lan- 
guage, the  Coptic  or  Egyptian.  Of  this  opinion  was  that  great 
linguist,  Atha.  Kircher;  who  asserts  that  the  name  is  Egyptian 
and  signifies  a  Prophet  or  Foreteller  of  events.  See  Prodromns 
Cap.  v.  p.  124  &c.  If  so,  there  must,  in  some  respects,  be 
a  remarkable  affinity  between  the  Hebrew  and  the  Coptic 
languages ;  which,  nevertheless,  cannot  be  general,  at  least  not 
universal;  for  while  Joseph,  to  conceal  himself  from  his  he- 
brew  brethren,  used  the  Egyptian  tongue,  he  spake  unto  them 
by  an  interpreter,  Gen.  xlii.  23.  Some  have  thought  that  Pharaoh 
gave  this  name  to  Joseph  out  of  respect  for  Baal-Zephon,one  of  the 
Egyptian  idols.  Exo.  xiv.  2.  Comp.  Dan.  i.  7.  and  v.  12. 

0  Col.  ii.  3.     P  Gen.  xxxvii.  4.  11.     <J  Ibid.  ver.  12—20. 


438  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.        [SEE.   XIV. 

captain  of  the  guard. "*  And  who  that  reads  the 
New  Testament,  does  not  know  that  when  Christ 
commissioned  by  his  heavenly  Father,  visited  his 
wretched  family  in  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  he 
was  treated  in  like  manner?  The  Jews,  though  "  after 
the  flesh"  they  were  his  own  brethren,  reviled  and 
rejected  him:  he  was 'that  HOLY  ONE  whom  his 
nation  abhorred  ;s  and  whom,  at  his  manifesta- 
tion on  earth,  they  treated  accordingly:  He  came 
unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not;1 
nor  did  they  merely  reject  him  and  his  dominion, 
saying,  We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us;u 
but,  abhorring  him,  they  conspired  also  to  take  away 
his  life  :  This  is  the  heiry  said  they,  Come  let  us  kill 
him.™  And  though  it  was  so  ordered  in  Providence, 
that  the  power  of  doing  this  directly,  had  previously 
been  taken  from  them,x  they,  nevertheless,  accom- 
plished it  indirectly;  for,  having  pronounced  him 
worthy  of  death,  theydelivered  him  into  the  hands  of 
the  Romans,  who,  being  gentiles,  were  in  a  nation- 
al sense,  as  much  strangers  to  him  as  the  Arabians 
were  to  Joseph ;  and  who  by  their  accusations  of  him 
at  a  heathen  tribunal,  procured  his  condemnation 
and  crucifixion. 

To  effect  their  murderous  design,  "the  chief 
priests,  and  elders,  and  all  the  council,"  the  assem- 
bled Sanhedrim,  "sought  false  witness  against 
Jesus,  to  put  him  to  death."  What  a  council!  It 
consisted  of  men,  who  (with  the  exception  of  Joseph 
of  Aramathea*}  were  all  filled  with  jealousy  and 

r  Gen.  xxxvii.  36.  sls.  xlix.7.  *  John  i.  11.  "Luke  xix.  14. 
w  Matt.  xxi.  38.  x  John  xviii.  31.  Comp.  Chap.  xix.  15. 

*Nicodemus  probably  was  not  present,  or  he  would  have  ob- 
jected also.  See  Luke  xxiii.  50 — 52.  and  John  xix.  38,  39. 


SEU.  XIV.J        JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  439 

rancor  against  the  person  they  were  to  try,  and,  un- 
der the  influence  of  these  demoniac  principles,  had 
prejudged  his  cause;*  nay,  men  who,  under  the 
sanctimonious  mask  of  religion,  could  not  only 
tolerate  but  even  seek  after  false  witness,  and  receive 
it  with  greediness.  Such  witness  they  sought ;  "  but," 
for  a  time,  "found  none;  yea,  though  many  false 
witnesses  came,  yet  found  they  none ;"  either  the 
charges  brought  were  so  evidently  void  of  truth,  or 
the  witnesses  who  brought  them  were  so  despicable 
and  so  discordant,  that  the  Sanhedrim  durst  not 
risk  their  own  reputation  so  far  as  to  pass  sentence 
of  condemation  on  the  accused,  while  they  were 
sustained  by  no  better  testimony.  "At  the  last," 
however,  "came  two  false  witnesses" — two  that 
were  agreed—"  And  said,  This  fellow  said,  I  am 
able  to  destroy  the  temple  of  God,  and  to  build  it 
in  three  days."  Well,  said  Christ,  speaking  in  Da- 
vid, They  wrest  my  words.  Psal.  Ivi.  5.  His  words 
to  which  they  referred,  are  Destroy  this  temple  and 
in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up ;  which  he  spake,  not 
of  their  famous  temple  at  Jerusalem,  but  of  the  tem- 
ple of  his  body,  John  ii.  19.  21.  "And  the  high- 
priest,"  elated  at  receiving  the  testimony  of  the  two 
false  witnesses  against  Jesus,  "  arose  and  said  unto 
him,  Answerest  thou  nothing  1  what  is  it  which  these 
witness  against  thee?  But  Jesus  held  his  peace ;" 
leaving  them  to  work  their  own  ruin,  and  to  fulfil 
the  counsel  of  God  in  the  salvation  of  his  people. 
See  Matt,  xxvi.^59— 63.  and  Acts  ii.  23. 

*  This  is  evident  from  the  history  of  their  conduct ;  though 
some  of  them  perhaps,  forbore  to  express  any  private  opinion  on 
the  case,  that  they  might  seem  to  be  the  more  impartial  and  can- 
did in  their  official  judgment. 


440  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  SER.  XIV* 

The  high-priest,  not  satisfied  with  the  silence  of 
the  innocent  prisoner,  whom  he  and  the  council 
were  resolved  to  condemn,  presumptuously  laid 
him  under  the  solemnity  of  an  oath;  saying,  "I 
adjure  thee  by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us, 
whether  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;x'  that 
is  the  true  Messiah.*  In  reply,  "  Jesus  saith  unto  him, 
Thou  hast  said  :f  nevertheless  I  say  unto  you,  Here- 
after shall  ye  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right 
hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.'' 
Mark  the  effect  which  this  solemn  declaration  had 
upon  the  high-priest!  Did  it  satisfy  him  and  make 
him  cease  from  his  efforts  to  criminate  Christ  1  Not 
in  the  least.  Nor  was  that  his  object  in  demanding 
it ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  might  accuse  him 
of  blasphemy  for  declaring  that  he  was  the  Son  of 
God,  and,  implicitly,  with  perjury  also ;  the  declara- 
tion being  made  under  oath.  "Then  the  high-priest 
rent  his  clothes,"  saying,  of  him  who  is  the  Holy 
One  and  TRUTH  itself,  "  He  hath  spoken  blasphemy; 
what  further  need  have  we  of  witnesses'!  behold, 

*  Hence  it  appears  that  the  Jews  of  that  degenerate  age,  hav- 
ing lost  the  true  idea  of  the  Messiah,  which  their  patriarchs  had 
entertained,  regarded  him  just  as  Socinians  do  now,  that  is,  they 
admitted  that  he  he  was  the  Son  of  God — yet,  not  by  nature  but 
merely  by  office. 

f  Which,  in  Jewish  style,  was  equivalent  to  a  concession,  nay, 
to  an  affirmation,  that  what  the  speaker  replied  to,  had  said,  was 
true ;  wherefore  the  above  reply  of  Jesus  to  the  high-priest,  was 
the  same,  in  meaning,  as  if  he  had  directly  answered,  /  aw,  as  it 
is  expressed  in  Mark  xiv.  62.  From  among  the  many  instances, 
which  Jewish  writings  furnish  of  this  form  of  expression,  take 
one  from  the  Jerusalem  Talmud,  Kilaim,  fol.  32.  2:  Some  having 
said  to  one,  *'  Is  Rabbi  dead?  He  replied  to  them  pmn«  jIDK 
ye  have  said;  and  they  rent  their  clothes;'1  knowing  from  the 
answer  received,  that  the  Rabbi  was  dead. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OP  CHRIST.  441 

now  ye  have  heard  his  blasphemy.  What  think 
ye?"  said  he  to  the  Council;  and  "They,"  (pro- 
bably all  present  except  Joseph)  "answered  and  said 
He  is  guilty  of  death.  Then  did  they,"  either  some 
of  the  counsellors  themselves,  or  some  of  the  keep- 
ers, under  their  sanction,  "  spit  in  his  face,  and  buf- 
fetted  him ;  and  others  smote  him  with  the  palms 
of  their  hands,  saying,  Prophecy  unto  us  thou  Christ, 
Who  is  he  that  smote  theel"  for  they  had  covered 
his  face,  or  blindfolded  him,  as  the  other  evangelists 
say.  See  Matt.  xxvi.  63 — 68.  and  Luke  xxii.  63 — 
65.  This  having  occurred  at  nig^t,  "  When  the 
morning  was  corne,  all  the  chief-priests  and  elders 
of  the  people  took  counsel  against  Jesus  to  put  him 
to  death.  And,"  not  having  a  civil  or  legal  author- 
ity to  do  it  themselves,  "  when  they  had  bound  him 
they  led  him  away,  and  delivered  him  to  Pontius 
Pilate  the  governor." 

Thus  "of  a  truth,"  O  God,  "against  thy  holy 
child  JESUS,  whom  thou  hast  anointed,  both  He- 
rod and  Pontius  Pilate,  with  the  gentiles  ;  and  the 
people  of  Israel,  were  gathered  together,  for  to  do 
whatsoever  thy  hand  and  thy  counsel  determined 
before  to  be  done."7  Astonishing  event ! — an  event, 
in  which  the  sovereignty  of  heaven  and  the  malig- 
nity of  hell,  were  equally  displayed — an  event,  in 
which  the  kindest  design  of  God  was  accomplished 
by  the  wickedest  combination  of  men — a  combina- 
tion of  men,  both  rulers  and  people,  who  though 
they  had  long  been  inveterate  enemies  to  each  other, 
on  that  occasion,  became  friends  ;z  and,  hence,  coad- 
jutors in  fulfilling  that  divine  decree,  of  which,  they 

yActs  iv.  27,  28.     *  Luke  xxiii.  12.  Is.  Ixv.  5.  Acts  x.  28. 

59 


442  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.          [3ER. 

were  totally  ignorant,*  and  in  the  execution  of  which 
they  were  prompted  by  the  worst  of  motives : — Yes, 
the  innocent  Jesus,  "being  delivered  by  the  deter- 
minate counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,''  was 
taken  by  Jews  and  Romans,  and  by  their  wicked 
hands  was  crucified  and  slain. b  And  (more  aston- 
ishing still !)  though  Jews  and  gentiles  were  combined 
in  crucifying  the  Lord  of  Glory;  yet  millions  of 
them  were  redeemed  and  shall  be  saved,  by  Him 
they  crucified :  for  thou,  blessed  Jesus,  wast  slain) 
and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  thy  blood,  OUT  OF 
every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people,  and  nation. 
Rev.  v.  9. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that,  as  among  Joseph's 
brethren,  there  was  one,  namely  Reuben,  who  sought 
to  rescue  him  ;c  so  in  the  Sanhedrim,  the  council  of 
Christ's  national  brethren,  there  was  one,  to  wit,  the 
Aramatheari  counsellor,  who  had  not  consented  to 
the  counsel  and  deed  of  them  against  him.d  More- 
over, as  Reuben,  who  favored  Joseph,  was  Jacob's 
first-born^  and  whose  name  signifies  See  the  Son  ;* 
so  all  the  favor  shown  to  Christ  or  his  cause  among 
men,  is  shown  by  the  saints,  who  are  manifestly 
God's  first-born/  and  who,  being  called  out  of  dark- 
ness into  light,  See  the  Son  and  believe  on  him.s 

Nor  is  it  any  less  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  sale 
of  Joseph,  for  twenty  pieces  of  silver,  was  at  the 
importunity  of  Judah,h  whose  name,  turned  into 
Greek,  is  Judas,  the  very  name  of  the  traitor,  who 

aICor.  ii.  8.     bActsii.  23.      cGen.  xxxvii.  21,22.  xlii.  22. 
d  Luke  xxiii.  51.     e  Gen.  xlix.  3. 
*  Explained,  Ser.  VII.  p.  225. 
f  Heb.  xii.  23.     £  John  vi.  40.     h  Gen.  xxxvii.  26—28. 


SER.  XIV.]         JOSEPH    A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  443 

sold  Christ  for  thirty  ^pieces  of  the  same  metal  ;* 
which  not  only  corresponded  to  the  type  in  Joseph, 
but  fulfilled  also  a  notable  prophecy.* 

To  procede.  As  Joseph  was  a  type  of  Christ  in  his 
sufferings,  so  also  in  his  subsequent  promotion.  For, 
as  Joseph,  after  patiently  enduring  affliction  and 
degradation,  even  to  imprisonment  in  a  dungeon, 
was  providentially  delivered,  and  honorably  distin- 
guished— nay,  advanced  next  to  the  king  and  made 
lord  of  all  the  land  of  Egypt  ;f  so  Christ  having,  as 
Mediator,  finished  his  sufferings  on  the  tree  of  the 
cross,  and  his  humiliation  in  the  dungeon  of  the  grave, 
was  raised  with  power — discharged  with  honor— 

1  Matt,  xx vi.  14,  15. 

*  Comp.  Matt,  xxvii.  9,  10.  with  Zech.  xi.  12,  13.  The  Evan- 
gelist, indeed,  refers  to  Jeremy ;  yet  was  readily  understood  in  his 
day  ;  nor  will  any  learned  Jew  object  to  the  citation  on  this  account; 
for  he  must  well  know  that  the  reference  is  agreeable  to  their  own 
most  ancient  division  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  three  parts; — 
1.  The  Laic,  containing  the  five  books  of  Moses  : — 2.  The  Pro- 
phets, containing  the  former  and  the  latter  prophets  :  the  former 
beginning  with  Joshua,  aud  the  latter  with  Jeremy:  And — 3.  The 
Hagiography,  or  Holy  Writings,  beginning  with  the  Psalms,  and 
including  with  them,  the  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Canticles,  Job, 
Ruth,  Hester,  fyc.  Hence,  in  citing  from  any  of  the  books  of 
Moses,  they  referred  to  the  Law — in  citing  from  any  of  the  former 
prophets  they  referred  to  Joshua — in  citing  from  any  of  the  latter 
prophets,  they  referred  to  Jeremy,  as  our  Evangelist  did  when  cit- 
ing from  Zechariah  ;  and  in  citing  from  any  of  the  other  books, 
they  referred,  either  to  the  Hagiography,  or  to  the  Psalms,  the  first 
book  thereof.  This  ancient  division  Christ  himself  observed,  say- 
ing, all  things  must  be  fulfilled  which  were  written  in  the  Law  of 
Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  me. 
Luke  xxiv.  44.  See  the  Bah.  Tal.  in  Bava  Bathra,  fol.  14.  facie  2. 

f  Gen.  xli.  41 — 44.  Joseph  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  stood 
before  Pharaoh  ;  Gen.  xli.  46 ;  the  rery  age  at  which  Christ  en- 
tered upon  his  public  ministry;  Luke  iii.  23.  How  long  Joseph 
was  a  prisoner  before  he  interpreted  the  dreams  of  Pharaoh's  but- 
ler and  baker,  we  know  not ;  but  it  is  evident  he  remained  such 


444  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.        [SER.  XIV. 

exalted  to  glory — and  invested  with  universal  domi- 
nion.1" And  as,  by  the  authority  of  Pharaoh,  appointed 
heralds  cried  before  Joseph,  Bow  ye  the  knee;1  so, 
by  the  authority  of  God  the  Father,  proclamation  is 
made  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  by  gospel-heralds, 
That  at  the  NAME  of  JESUS  every  knee  should  bow, 
of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earthy  and  things 
under  the  earth.  Philip,  ii.  10.  Which,  however, 
is  not  to  be  understood  of  a  mere  literal  genuflection, 
or  bending  of  knees,  common  among  the  papists,  at 
hearing  that  sacred  name  pronounced;  nor,  by  any 
means,  as  implying  that,  eventually,  there  will  be  a 
universal  submission  of  intelligent  creatures  to  the 
gracious  scepter  of  Christ,  as  a  Saviour;  but  of  that 
universal  subjection  to  his  authority  and  decisions, 
which  shall  be  rendered  to  him,  as  a  Judge,  in  that 
day  when  all  must  appear  before  his  judgment- seat. 
See  Rom.  xiv.  10—12. 

In  token  of  Joseph's  high  promotion,  Pharaoh 
himself  directed  to  him,  every  applicant  for  either 
counsel  or  provision :  Go,  said  he,  unto  Joseph;  what 
he  saith  to  you  do.m  So,  to  every  sensible  sinner — 
to  every  anxious  inquirer,  and  to  every  distressed 
believer,  God,  in  his  word  and  by  his  ministering 
servants,  is,  in  effect,  saying,  Go  to  Jesus;  "  This  is 
my  beloved  Son ;  hear  him"* — To  him  is  given  the 

two  full  years  afterward.  Gen.  xli.  1.  It  is  strange  that  in  the 
history  of  his  release  and  subsequent  life,  no  notice  is  taken  of  how 
he  came  to  be  imprisoned.  If  (as  commonly  believed)  the  wicked 
woman,  under  whose  false  accusation  he  suffered,  had  in  the  mean 
time  deceased,  it  is  fearfully  probable  that,  to  maintain  her  credit, 
she  died  impenitently  persisting  in  the  iniquitous  charge.  If  so, 
she  was  more  hardened  than  Judas.  Matt,  xxvii.  3,  4.  O  that 
God  would  bring  such  accusers  to  repentance  ! 

k  Rom.  i.  4.  Acts  ii.  24.  33.  v.  31.  Matt,  xxviii.  IS.  John  xvii.  2. 
1  Gen.  xii.  43.  m  Ibid.  ver.  55.  a  Mark  ix.  7. 


SEE.  XIV.]          JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  445 

tongue  of  the  learned,  that  he  should  know  how  to 
speak  a  word  in  season  to  him  that  is  weary0 — It 
pleased  the  Father  that  in  him  should  all  fulness  dicell9 
—  Wherefore,  he  is  able  also  to  save  them  to  the  utter- 
most that  come  unto  God  by  him,  seeing  he  ever  linelh 
to  make  intercession  for  them* — Believe,  then,  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  O  trembling  sinner,  and  thou 
shall  be  saved.* 

Nor  was  Joseph,  however  highly  promoted,  for- 
getful of  his  brethren,  ungrateful  and  cruel  as  they 
had  been  to  him,  nor  inattentive  to  their  distressing 
wants. 

Preparatory,  indeed,  to  making  himself  known  to 
them,  he  seemed  to  treat  them  as  strangers,  and 
with  awful  reserve  and  appalling  austerity ;  neverthe- 
less, he  acted  from  the  kindest  motive,  and  with  the 
tenderest  compassion ;  he  turned  himself  about  from 
them  and  wept;*  and  though  he  gave  them  much 
trouble  of  mind  by  returning  their  money,  and  es- 
pecially by  causing  them  to  be  charged  with  the  theft 
of  his  cup,  yet  each  was  done  because  he  would  show 
them  unexpected  favor — the  former,  because  he  would 
supply  them  gratis,  and  the  latter,  because  he  would 
bring  them  back,  that  he,  who  knew  them  while  they 
knew  not  him,  might  reveal  himself  to  them,  and 
introduce  them  to  acceptance  with  the  royal  majesty.* 
How  similar  the  knowledge  and  the  conduct  of  our 
divine  Joseph,  in  reference  to  his  chosen  but  guilty 
and  impoverished  brethren !  He  who  knoweth  all 
things?  perfectly  knows  them  and  their  forlorn  estate, 
while  they  are  yet  ignorant  of  him  and  of  their  secret 

°Is.  1.  4.  P  Col.  i.  19.  qHeb.  vii.  25.  r  Acts.  xvi.  31.  •  Gen. 
xlii.*4.  t  ibid.  Ver.  7, 8. 26, 27, 28.  Chap.  xliv.  1—17.  xlv.  16  &c. 
u  John  xxi.  17. 


446  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.         [SER.  XIV. 

relation  to  him.w  Nor  is  he,  though  exalted  and  en- 
throned in  heaven,  forgetful  of  them  or  of  their  ne- 
cessities, degraded,  depraved  and  guilty  as  they  are 
become,  by  their  fall  in  Adam  and  by  their  own  actual 
transgressions."  Indeed,  they  are  so  proud  and  self- 
sufficient,  that  they  never  would  come  to  him,  were 
they  not  caused,  by  divine  grace,  as  Joseph's  brethren 
were,  by  divine  providence,  to  experience  a  famine 
in  their  own  land — a  famine  in  their  souls — a  sense 
of  want,  which  all  the  stores  of  nature  cannot  supply 
— a  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteousness, 
under  which  all  their  former  gratifications  become 
husks  and  not  bread;  as  illustrated  in  the  parable  of 
the  returning  prodigal.y  And  even  when  thus  made 
to  feel  their  wants,  they  come  to  Christ,  at  first,  as 
Joseph's  brethren  came  to  him — not  to  beg  but  to 
buy ;  that  is,  vainly  hoping  to  obtain  from  him  what 
they  need,  in  consideration  of  the  penitent  hearts,  the 
good  desires,  the  reformed  lives,  and  the  sincere  pro- 
mises, with  which  they  come.  So  coming,  however, 
they  receive  no  more  regard  from  Christ  than  Naa- 
man  the  leper  received  from  Elisha  the  Seer,  when, 
taking  with  him,  "ten  talents  of  silver,  six  thousand 
pieces  of  gold,  and  ten  changes  of  raiment,"  he 
appeared,  in  his  chariot,  before  the  prophet's  door. 
See  2  Kings,  chapter  v.  While  they  apply  to  Christ 
under  these  legal  views,  he  treats  them  as  Joseph 
did  his  brethren;  instead  of  comforting  them,  he 
speaks  roughly  to  them,  and  proves  them  with  search- 
ing questions — nay,  puts  them  in  prison,  and  keeps 
them,  for  a  time,  in  ward,  under  the  bondage  and 
menaces  of  the  law.z  Yet  his  design  in  all  is  kind 

^Prov.  viii.  31.  John  xvii.  9,  10.  20.  24.    *  Rom.  v.  12,  18. 
Eph.  ii.  1—6.  y  T.uke  xv.  1 1  &c. z  Gen.  xlii.7— 30.  Matt.xv.  22—27. 


SER.  XIV.]         JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  C1I1UST.  447 

and  gracious — it  is,  that  through  the  law,  they  may 
become  dead  to  the  law,  and  in  the  end,  enjoy  a 
good  hope  through  grace* 

Moreover,  as  Joseph's  brethren,  when  they  stop- 
ped at  an  inn  to  take  refreshment,  were  suddenly 
thrown  into  a  consternation,  at  finding  their  money  re- 
turned in  their  sacks ;  so  awakened  sinners,  being  yet 
under  the  influence  of  a  legal  spirit,  when  they  enter  a 
place  of  public  worship,  where  the  oracles  of  God  are 
faithfully  explained,  instead  of  being  refreshed  and 
comforted,  are  unexpectedly  overwhelmed  in  disap- 
pointment and  trouble  ; — the  sacks  of  their  depraved 
hearts  being  laid  open  before  the  light  of  divine 
truth,  they  find  all  their  self-dependent  pleas  rejected 
and  all  their  self-flattering  expectations  blasted  ; 
their  hearts,  like  those  of  Joseph's  brethren,  fail 
them,  and  they  are  afraid  God  is  about  to  destroy 
them ;  yea,  finding  that  neither  their  reformation  of 
life,  nor  their  tender  feelings,  nor  their  good  inten- 
tions, nor  all  combined,  can  be  admitted  as  a  condi- 
tion of  their  acceptance,  they  are  ready  to  exclaim, 
Who  then  can  be  saved ?b  Perhaps,  indeed,  on  a 
little  reflection,  or  by  means  of  some  false  instruc- 
tion, they  conclude  their  disappointment  has  arisen, 
not  because  the  grounds  of  their  reliance  were  wrong 
in  kind,  but  because  they  were  defective  in  extent 
and  sincerity ;  and  hence,  as  Joseph's  brethren  "took 
a  present  and  double  money,"  they  resolve  that, 
with  a  present  of  thanks  for  past  mercy,  they  will 
double  their  diligence  and  faithfulness  in  repenting 
and  doing.0  Still,  however,  coming  with  opened  eyes 

aMatt.  xv.  28.  Gal.  ii.  19.  2  Thess.  ii.  16.  b  Gen.  xlii.  27, 
28.- Matt.  xix.  25.  c  Gen.  xliii.  15.  Exo.  v.  17.  Matt  xix.  20. 
Mark  x.  21.  Luke  xviii.  22. 


448  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.         [gER.  XfV, 

to  the  Bible,  and,  with  opened  ears  under  a  search- 
ing ministry,  they  find  all  they  can  do  or  suffer,  while 
conceived  of  as  a  price  for  what  they  need,  is  divinely 
condemned  and  rejected  as  filthy  rags."1     They  are 
told  that  salvation  is  not  of  works,  lest  any  man 
should  boast* — that  it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor 
of  him  that  runneth* — in  short,  that  it  is  to  be  had, 
if  at  all,  without  money  and  without  priced    Nay 
more  ;  Christ,  like  Joseph,  charges  his  brethren  with 
the  guilt  of  his  cup,  the  cup  of  all  his  sufferings11 — 
they  shall  look  upon  me  whom  they  have  pierced, 
saith  he ;  and,  looking  upon  him,  they  shall  mourn 
for  him,  as  one  mournethfor  his  only  son,  and  shall 
be  in  bitterness  for  him,  as  one  that  is  in  bitterness  for 
his  first-born.  Nevertheless,  eventually,  like  Joseph 
also,  he  makes  himself  known  to  his  brethren,  in  his 
mediatorial  and  fraternal  relations  to  them ;  in  doing 
which,  he  shows  them,  that  by  the  very  cup  where- 
with he  charges  them,  he  has  redeemed  them  from 
under  the  curse  ;  and,  giving  them  the  cup  of  salva- 
tion,1" he  causes  them  to  know,  that  more,  infinitely 
more  than  they  had  vainly  expected  to  purchase, 
He,  as  their  Friend  and  Brother,  freely  bestows 
upon  them;    the  Father  having  in  him  blessed  us 

with  all  spiritual  blessings according  as  he  hath 

chosen  us  in  him  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  that  (when  renewed  by  his  grace)  we  should 
be  holy  and  without  blame  before  him  in  love.i 

The  coming,  however,  of  Joseph's  relations  to  him, 
and  their  becoming  dependant  upon  him,  require  a 
more  distinct  consideration. 


a  Is.  Ixiv.  6.    e  Eph.  ii.  9.     f  Rom.  ix.  16.     £  Is.  Iv.  1.     h  Matt, 
xxvi.  39.  42.    *  Zech.  xii.  10.    k  Psal.  cxvi.  13.    'Eph.  i.  3,  4. 


-SER.   XIV.]          JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  449 

FIRST,  His  prophetic  dreams  concerning  them 
were  herein  fulfilled:  "The  sons  of  Israel,"  (in 
that  instance  ten  of  them  only,1")  "came  to  buy  corn 
among  those  that  came :  for  the  famine  was  in  the 
land  of  Canaan,"  as  well  as  mother  lands.  "And 
Joseph  was  the  governor  of  the  land,  and  he  it  was 
that  sold  to  all  the  people  of  the  land:  and  Joseph's 
brethren  came,  and  bowed  down  themselves  before 

him  with  their  faces  to  the  earth And  Joseph 

knew  his  brethren,  but  they  knew  not  him.  And 
Joseph  remembered  the  dreams  which  he  dreamed 
of  them ;"  the  first  of  which,  the  obeisance  which 
their  sheaves  made  to  his  sheaf,  being  herein  evidently 
fulfilled.  See  Gen.  xlii.  5 — 9,  compared  with  Chap, 
xxxvii.  5 — 7.  Hereby,  too,  he  was  reminded  of  his 
other  dream,  in  which  "  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and 
the  eleven  stars,  made  obeisance  to  him ;"  an  emblem 
of  that  civil  reverence,  which,  at  a  future  time,  his 
father,  and  his  mother,  and  all  his  eleven  brethren, 
should  render  unto  him.  So  Jacob  himself  under- 
stood the  dream ;  and  prudently,  to  prevent  pride 
in  young  Joseph,  and  to  moderate  the  resentment 
of  his  elder  brethren,  gently  rebuked  him  for  telling 
it.  See  Gen-  xxxvii.  9,  10. 

In  regard  to  the  sun,  Joseph's  father,  this  dream 
was  fulfilled  in  the  profound  respect  which  Jacob 
showed  to  the  lord  of  Egypt,  by  the  presents  which 
he  sent  him,  while  yet  he  had  no  thought  that  the 
distinguished  person  whom  he  thus  honored  was 
his  own  son,  and  especially  by  his  subsequent 
recumbence  upon  him,  in  the  official  station  to 
which  Joseph  was  promoted.0  With  regard  to 

m  Gen.  xlii.  3,  4.     »  Gen,  xliii.  11,— 14.  xlvii.  6. 

60 


450  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.        [SER. 

the  moon,  however,  there  is  an  obvious  difficulty; 
for  Joseph's  mother,  thereby  symbolized,  was  al- 
ready dead  ;  Rachel  having  died  at  the  birth  of 
Benjamin,  on  the  way  from  Bethel  to  Ephrath.0 
Wherefore,  it  must  be  understood  either  of  Leah, 
Jacob's  surviving  wife  and  Joseph's  step-mother,  or 
of  Bilhah,  Rachel's  hand-maid,  who,  after  the  death 
of  her  mistress,  was  as  a  mother  to  Joseph ;  as 
appears  by  his  being  with  her  sons.p  And,  admitting 
that  Jacob,  at  the  time  to  which  the  dream  referred, 
had  no  wife;  (and  which  is  highly  probable;)  the 
mother  of  Joseph,  nevertheless,  whether  understood 
of  Rachael,  of  Leah,  or  of  Bilhah,  "bowed  down 
to  him,"  in  her  posterity.*  And  whereas,  at  the 
second  time  Joseph's  brethren  came  to  him,  Benja- 
min, his  younger  brother,  was  among  them,  making 
the  number  eleven,  the  dream,  in  relation  to  them, 
was  verified  when  they  all,  answering  to  the  eleven 
stars,  "bowed  down  and  made  obeisance  to  him."r 

SECONDLY,  The  coming  of  the  Jews  to  Christ 
was  herein  specially  typified;  "they  being,  after  the 
flesh,"  his  relations.  * 

Did  Joseph's  relations,  in  their  coming  to  him, 
fulfil  his  prophetic  dreams  respecting  them  1  Let 
it  be  remembered,  that  the  events  of  prophecy, 
though  uttered  by  the  prophets,  were  only  such  as 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify  .* 
and  therefore,  that  the  coming  of  the  Jews  to  Christ, 
in  the  early  times  of  the  gospel,  was,  and  that  their 
coming  to  him,  in  the  latter  day,  will  be,  according  to 
his  predictions  concerning  them." 

°Gen.  xxxv.  16—19.  Plbid.  xxxvii.2.  iJbid.  xlvi.  15.— 25. 
'Ibid,  xliii.  26-28  s  Rom.  ix.  5.  Heb.  vii.  14.  *1  Pet.  i.  11. 
u  Joel  ii.  28,  29  and  Acts  ii.  16—18.  Jer.  xxx.  9.  Ezek.  xxxiv, 
%3.  xxxvi.  24,  $5.  Hosea  iii.  5. 


«ER.  XIV.]  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF   CHRIST,  451 

Joseph's  brethren,  after  they  had  sold  him  to 
strangers,  were,  it  would  seem,  wholly  unconcerned 
about  what  they  had  done,  for  a  long  time,  at  least 
twenty  years.*  How  much  longer,  alas!  have  the 
Jews,  the  national  brethren  of  Christ,  remained  im- 
penitent, under  the  guilt  of  their  infinitely  more 
cruel  treatment  of  Him!  The  generation  of  them 
among  whom  he  tabernacled  in  hun>an  nature,  sold 
him  and  procured  his  crucifixions-even  when  Pilate 
would  have  released  him,  they,  still  relentless,  cried 
Crucify  him,  crucify  him  ;  yet  their  posterity,  dur- 
ing a  lapse  of  about  eighteen  hundred  years,  have 
never  lamented,  but  constantly  commended,  their 
horrid  deeds.  Nor  can  we  say  how  much  longer 
their  judicial  stupidity  will  remain.  We  are  certain, 
however,  that  the  time  will  come,  when  Christ  will 
pour  upon  them,  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplica- 
tions, and  that  THEN  they  shall  look  upon  him  whom 
they  have  pierced  and  mourn  ;w  for,  on  their  becoming 
convinced  that  he  is  the  true  Messiah,  they  will 
deeply  bewail  their  long  contempt  and  *  obstinate 
rejection  of  him,  saying,  We  hid  as  it  were  our 
faces  from  him  ;  he  icas  despised  and  we  esteemed  him 
not.  Surely  he  hath  borne  our  griefs,  and  carried  our 

*  Joseph  was  17  years  old  when  he  was  sold  into  Egypt  ;  Gen, 
xxxvii.  2;  and  30  years  old  when  promoted  in  the  court  of  Pha- 
raoh ;  Chap.  xli.  46;  consequently  he  had  been  13  years  in  bon- 
dage; the  seven  years  of  plenty,  added  to  these,  make  20:  and 
probably  one  or  two  of  the  seven  years  of  scarcity,  had  also  elapsed 
before  the  famine  became  so  great  in  Canaan  as  to  compel  the 
sons  of  Jacob  to  go  to  Egypt  for  corn.  All  this  time  they  re- 
mained insensible  of  their  cruelty  to  Joseph.  By  allusion  to  this, 
it  was  said  of  their  sensual  and  inconsiderate  posterity,  in  after 
times,  "  They  are  not  grieved  for  the  affliction  nj  Joseph:'1 
Amos  vi.  6. 


.  xi. 


452  vJOSKPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.         [SEK.  X1VV 

sorrows;  irct  we  did  esteem  him  stricken,  smitten  of 
God  and  afflicted,"  as  an  impostor.  But  (How 
affecting  to  them  will  be  the  discovery!)  he  was 
wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised  for 
our  iniquities;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  icas 
upon  him;  and  with  his  stripes  ice  are  healed  * 
Is.  liii.  3—5. 

Joseph's  brethren,  the  ten  at  first  and  afterwards 
the  eleven,  came  to  him,  excited  thereto  by  their 
father  Jacob,  who  believed  the  report  that  there  was 
plenty  with  the  lord  of  Egypt.w  Did  not  this  typ- 
ically signify  that  the  Jews,  the  national  brethren  of 
Christ,  would  come  to  him,  moved  by  the  conviction 
of  his  being  the  Messiah  of  whom  their  prophets 
spake  and  wrote,  and  in  whom  Jacob  and  the  rest 
of  their  patriarchs  believed  and  trusted  I  Thus  it 
was  in  the  first  times  of  the  Gospel :  the  apostles 
and  other  Jews,  then  called,  believed  in  Christ,  as 
HE  of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  wrote,x  and 
according  to  the  faith  of  their  patriarchal  ancestors.* 
And  the  same  will  be  verified  again,  at  the  calling 
of  the  Jews  in  the  latter  day;  for,  on  perceiving 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whom  the  apostles  and 
other  converted  Jews  embraced,  is  indeed  the  Christy 
in  whom  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  trusted,  they 
also,  being  made  partakers  of  like  precious  faith, 
and  encouraged  by  patriarchal  and  apostolic  example, 
will  look  to  him  and  trust  in  him.  Then  Jacob,  in 
his  elect  posterity,  shall  return  and  shall  be  in  rest, 
and  be  quiet,  and  none  shall  make  him  afraid.7  To 
the  Jews,  thus  brought  to  repentance,  the  times  of 

^  Gen.  xlii.  1,  2.  xliii.  1,  2.     *  John  i.  41.  45.         *  See  Acts 
v.  29—32.  xxvi.  6.  22,  23.  xxviii.  23,  24.     *  Jer.  xxx.  9. 


SEH.  XIV.J         JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  453 

refreshing  shall  come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.* 
And   so  all   Israel,  meaning  all   the  Jews,  or  the 
greater  part  of  them,  who  will  then  be  upon  earth, 
'  shall  be  saved,  &c.  Rom.  xi.  26,  27.  Jer.  xxxi.  34. 

Joseph's  brethren,  in  both  instances,  came  to  him 
in  consequence  of  famine  ;a  and  so  the  Jews,  the 
national  brethren  of  Christ,  carne  to  him  at  their 
former  calling,  and  will  come  to  him,  at  their  latter 
calling,  under  a  famine  of  the  word :  Behold  the 
days  come  saith  the  Lord  God,  that  I  will  send  a 
famine  in  the  land,  the  land  of  Judea,  not  a  famine 
of  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing  the 
words  of  the  Lord,  &c.  Amos  viii.  11,  12.  For, 
whatever  application  this  prophecy  may  have  to 
certain  times  and  sections  of  the  Christian  church,  it 
primarily  respects  the  Jews.  During  the  latter  part 
of  the  old  dispensation,  prophecy  ceased  among 
them ;  for,  from  the  times  of  Malachi,  to  those  of 
John  the  Baptist,  a  course  of  about  400  years,  they 
had  no  vision  ;b  and  the  writings  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  though  preserved  among  them,  were  almost 
explained  away  by  the  traditions  of  their  elders, 
especially  in  what  related  to  the  Messiah.  Hence, 
there  was  a  famine  of  the  word  throughout  their 
land;  for,  to  them,  as  lost — to  the  regenerate  among^ 
them,  as  hungry,  what  were  the  law  and  the  prophets, 
when  so  interpreted,  that  the  divine  Messiah,  the 
Saviour  of  lost  sinners  and  the  Bread  of  Life,  was 
excluded  from  them  ?  And  though  by  the  light  of 
the  gospel,  which  began  to  shine  in  the  ministry  of 
John,  many  of  the  Jews  perceived  and  embraced 

1  Acts  iii.  19.     a  Gen.  xlii.  5.  xliii.  1,  2.    b  Micah  iii.   6,  7. 
Mai.  iv.  5.   Matt.  xi.  13, 14. 


454  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.          [feER.  XIV* 

the  Christ  of  God;  yet,  their  nation  generally  re- 
jecting him,  HE,  pursuant  to  his  threatening,  took 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  gospel-dispensation, 
from  them,  and  gave  it  to  another  nation,  meaning 
the  gentiles;0  whereupon  commenced  that  famine  of 
gospel-preaching  among  the  Jews,  which  will  con- 
tinue till  the  time  of  their  future  calling;  when,  glad 
to  receive  the  favor  they  have  so  long  despised,  they 
will  again  &;ay,  Blessed  is  he  (a  gospel-minister)  that 
cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Matt,  xxiii.  39. 

Moreover,  as  Joseph's  brethren  did  not  go  to  him, 
till  after  his  stores  had  been  opened  to  other  nations  ;d 
so  the  Jews,  the  national  brethren  of  Christ,  will 
not  go  to  him,  till  his  unsearchable  riches  shall  have 
been  opened  in  the  gospel,  to  the  nations  of  the 
world:  blindness  in  part  is  happened  to  Israel,  un- 
til the  fulness  of  the  gentiles  be  come  in.  Rom.  xi.  25. 

Then,  too,  the  prophetic  dream  of  Joseph,  in 
which  he  beheld  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  eleven 
stars,  making  obeisance  to  him,  will,  to  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  converted  Jews,  receive  a  mystical  ful- 
filment in  CHRIST  ;  for  they  will  then  see,  that  His 
most  distinguished  progenitors,  Abraham,6  Isaac/ 
Jacob,g  and  Davidh,  answering  to  the  sun — His  mys- 
tical mother,1  (the  true  Israel  under  the  old  dispensa- 
tion,) answering  to  the  moon,  and  the  eleven  genu- 
ine apostles,k  answering  to  the  eleven  stars,  all 
believed  in  HIM  and  bowed  down  to  HIM.  Of  the 
patriarchs  arid  others  who,  under  the  Old/Testament, 
were  spiritual  Israelites,  Paul  affirms,  These  all 

c  Matt.  xxi.  43.  d  Gen.  xli.  56, 57.  *  Gen.  xxii  18.  Rom.  iv.  3. 
'Gen.  xxvi/4.  Heb.  xi.  20.  eGen.xxviii.  10—17.  Heb.  xi.  21. 
*»2  Sam.  xxiii.  1 — 5.  Psal.  xxxii.  1,  2.  Rom  iv.  6 — 8.  *  Cant.  iii. 
11.  Comp.  Psal.  liii.  6.  and  Heb.  vii.  14.  kLuke  xxiv.  9.  52. 


SER.  XIV.]          JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  455 

died  in  faith  ;l  and  Peter  representing  all  the  believ- 
ing apostles,  said  to  his  Lord  and  Master,  We  believe 
and  are  sure  (their  faith,  observe,  rose  to  assurance) 
that  thou  art  that  Christ,  that  Christ  of  whom 
Moses  and  the  prophets  wrote,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God.m 

"The  sons  of  Israel,"  however,  were  not  ALL,  but 
only  AMONG  those  that  came  to  Joseph  to  obtain 
corn."  "The  famine"  of  bread,  to  which  our  sub- 
ject relates,  "was  over  all  the  face  of  the  earth: 
....  And  all  countries,"  that  is,  the  inhabitants  of 
them,  "came  into  Egypt  to  Joseph  for  to  buy  corn; 
because  that  the  famine  was  sore  in  all  lands.0*  So 
the  want  of  spiritual  blessings  is  common  to  all  na- 
tions ;  nor  are  they  to  be  had  by  Jew  or  gentile,  from 

1  Heb.  xi.  13.     m  John  vi.  69.    «  Gen.  xlii.  5.    °  Ibid.  xli.  56,  57. 

*  Herein  was  illustrated  an  important  fact  in  relation  to  our 
temporal  life  and  its  supplies.  By  a  divine  grant,  man,  in  his 
primeval  state,  had  a  right  "to  eat  freely  of  every  tree  of  the  gar- 
den" in  which  he  was  placed,  excepting  only  of  "the  tree  of 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil."  Gen.  ii.  9.  iii  16,  17.  Conse- 
quently, he  had  a  right  to  eat,  not  only  of  those  trees,  whose 
fruit  was  intended  for  his  ordinary  food,  but  also,  as  occasion  re- 
quired, of  the  fruit  of  "the  tree  of  life  in  tho  midst  of  the  garden;" 
which  tree,  it  should  seem,  was  both  an  emblem  of  his  paradis- 
iacal life,  and  the  appointed  means  of  rendering  that  life  perpetual, 
had  he  abstained  from  the  tree  forbidden. 

By  his  transgression,  however,  man  forfeited  this  grant.  The 
earth  itself,  for  his  sin  committed  upon  it,  was  subjected  to  a  curse 
of  comparative  sterility;  Gen.  iii.  17 — 19;  his  future  access  to 
the  tree  of  life,  was  interdicted  and  absolutely  prevented ;  Gen. 
iii.  22 — 24 ;  and  he  and  all  his  posterity,  nay,  the  preservation  of 
the  execrated  earth  itself,  became  dependent  on  the  Mediator,  the 
Antitype  of  Joseph  :  "  The  earth,"  said  Christ,  "  and  all  the  in- 
habitants thereof,"  (with  respect  to  the  original  constitution  of 
things)  "  are  dissolved :  I  bear  up  the  pillars  of  it."  Psal.  Ixxv. 
3.  Hence  as,  during  the  famine,  all  were  dependent  on  Joseph, 


456  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.          [SER.  XIV. 

any  stores  but  those  of  Christ,  in  whom  it  hath 
pleased  the  Father  that  ALL  fulness  should  dwell.1' 
And,  as  Joseph  withheld  supplies  from  none  on  ac- 
count their  nation,  so  neither  does  Christ  ;/or,  in  this 
respect,  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Jew  and 
the  Greek,  or  gentile ;  for  the  same  Lord  over  all  is 
rich  unto  all  them  that  call  upon  him.* 

Nevertheless,  the  family  of  Jacob,  as  being  all 
blessed  in  Joseph,  was  a  figure  of  the  whole  family 
of  God's  elect,  among  all  nations,  as  being  all  blessed 
in  Christ,  the  Antitype  of  Josephs  Hence,  by  a 
manifest  allusion  to  national  Israel,  the  church  is 
called  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a 
holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people — nay,  emphatically, 
the  Israel  of  God.*  Therefore, 

THIRDLY,  Joseph's  relations,  especially  his  breth- 
ren, in  their  coming  to  him  and  becoming  dependent 
upon  him,  were  typical  of  the  mystical  relations  of 
Christ,  as  well  among  the  gentiles  as  the  Jews,  in 
their  coming  to  him,  at  their  effectual  calling,  and  in 
their  subsequent  reliance  upon  him  and  subjection 
to  him. 

The  natural  relation  of  Joseph's  brethren  to  him, 
recollect,  did  riot  commence  at  the  time  of  their 
coming  to  him  for  corn  ;  they  were  his  brethren  be- 

and  none  had  a  right  to  expect  corn  from  him,  but  on  condition  of 
paying  for  it;  so,  the  earth  being  cursed  for  Adam's  sin,  and  with- 
holding her  spontaneous  productions  from  his  posterity,  all  are 
dependent,  even  for  temporal  supplies,  on  the  favor  of  the  Medi- 
ator, who  has  all  power  and  all  nature  in  his  hands;  and  none  have 
a  right  to  expect  them,  but  on  condition  of  enduring  toil,  and  labor, 
-and  sorrow.  Gen.  iii.  17 — 19. 

pCol.  i.  19.     i  Rom.  [xii.  10.     'Gen.  xxii.  18.  Eph.  i.  3,  4. 
*  1  Pet.  ii  9.Ga1.  vi.  16. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH   A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST*  457 

fore.  So  neither  does  the  mystical  relation  of  the 
elect  to  Christ,  commence  at  the  time  of  their  calling, 
when  they  come  to  him  for  the  Bread  of  Life ;  for, 
as  early  as  they  were  the  children  of  God,  they 
were  the  brethren  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  God:  but 
they  were  the  children  of  God  by  ADOPTION  and 
therefore,  MYSTICALLY  the  brethren  of  Christ,  while 
yet  scattered  abroad — uncalled — nay,  unredeemed* 
See  John  xi.  52.  and  Heb.  ii.  13—17. 

Yet,  as  Christ  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God, 
by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead?  so  the  elect  are 
made  manifest  as  the  adopted  children  of  God,  and 
therefore,  as  the  mystical  brethren  of  Christ,  by 
their  resurrection  from  a  death  in  sin  ;  for,  hereupon 
God  sends  forth  the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into  their 
hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father;11  and  Christ,  (How 
amazing  his  condescension  !)  is  not  ashamed  to  call 
them  brethren™ 

Having  thus  particularly  considered  the  coming 
of  Joseph's  brethren  to  him,  I  precede  to  consider 
his  knowledge  of  them — his  conduct  towards  them 
— and  his  making  himself  known  unto  them. 

First,  His  knowledge  of  them.  For,  when  they, 
pinched  with  famine,  heard  of  his  abundance,  and 
came  to  him  for  supplies,  he  knew  them,  though  they 
knew  not  him;1  and  so,  when  regenerate  sinners, 
sensible  of  their  spiritual  wants,  and  hearing  of 
Christ  in  the  report  of  the  gospel,  apply  to  him  for 
aid,  though  they  know  not  him,  in  his  covenant-rela- 
tion to  them,  he  distinctly  knows  them,  in  their 
covenant-relation  to  him.  He  knows  them,  as  being 
of  that  all  whom  the  Father  hath  given  unto  him  in 

'Rom*  i.  4.      "Gal.  iv.  6.     *Heb.  ii.  11.     *Gen.  xlii.  7,  8, 

61 


458  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.          [sER.  XIV. 

safe-keeping,  and  for  whom  he  is  accountable7 — as 
being  of  that  peculiar  people,  whom,  according  to 
covenant-stipulation,  he  redeemed  from  all  iniquity* 
— as  being  of  those  to  whom  all  needful  grace  was 
given,  IN  HIM,  before  the  world  began* — nay,  as  those 
who,  "of  his  fulness,"  have  already  received  the 
life-giving  Spirit,  convincing  them  of  their  lost  estate 
and  exciting  them  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come. 

Secondly,  His  conduct  towards  them.  For  Joseph 
knowing  his  brethren,  variously  distinguished  them 
even  before  he  made  himself  known  to  them. 

1.  He  repeatedly  favored  them  with  a  sight  of  his 
person  and  magnificence,  that  they  might  hence 
infer  the  greatness  of  his  authority  and  the  plenitude 
of  his  stores.^  So,  to  regenerate,  inquiring  souls, 
Christ,  through  the  medium  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  the  instrumentality  of  his  ministering  servants, 
gives  such  discoveries  of  himself  and  of  his  fulness, 
as  he  does  not  give  to  the  unregenerate.c  Joseph's 
brethren,  however,  while  ignorant  of  his  relation  to 
them,  conceived  of  him  only  as  the  lord  of  the  land, 
and  expected  nothing  from  him  but  for  money.* 
Nor  are  the  thoughts  which  regenerate  sinners,  un- 
der their  first  exercises,  entertain  of  Christ,  any 
more  correct ;  for,  though  they  may  be  overwhelmed 
in  contemplating  his  greatness,  his  authority,  and 
his  glory,  they  have  no  just  views  of  his  mediatorial 
character,  and  especially  not  of  his  covenant-rela- 
tion to  them.  They  know  him  not  as  their  Brother 
and  Friend.  He  appears  to  them  only  as  a  HOLY 
and  a  MIGHTY  SOVEREIGN — as  having,  indeed,  all 

y  John  vi.  39.  z  Titus  ii.  14.  Comp.  Is.  liii.  11.  and  Heb.  xiii, 
20.  a  2  Tim.  i.  9.  b  Gen.  xlii.  6,  7.  30.  33.  xliii.  26.  xliv. 
14—20.  c  Acts  xxii.  9.  d  Gen.  xlii.  5. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  459 

they  want  at  his  disposal — but,  as  suspending  the 
grant  thereof  upon  some  supposed  condition  to  be 
performed  by  them.  What  the  imaginary  condition 
is,  they  are  not  agreed — one  fancying  it  to  be  this 
and  another  that ;  yet,  feeling  their  perishing  need 
of  his  favor,  each  cries,  with  Saul  of  Tarsus,  Lord 
what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  or,  with  the  trem- 
bling Jailor,  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? 

2.  Before  Joseph  made  himself  known  to  his  breth- 
ren, he  distinguished  them,  by  directing  his  servants 
both  to  restore  every  man's  money  into  his  sack  and 
to  give  them  provision  for  the  way.*  He  dealt  not 
so  with  others  who  came  to  purchase.  And  the 
like  difference  Christ  makes  between  mere  legalists 
and  true  penitents ;  the  former,  he  leaves  depending 
upon  their  legal  performances  ;f  but  the  latter,  he 
instructs  and  sustains ;  for  though,  by  his  word  and 
the  preaching  of  his  servants,  he  rejects  all  they 
bring  as  a  price  for  salvation — nay,  gives  them  seve- 
rally the  witness  thereof  in  the  sacks  of  their  own 
hearts ;  yet,  by  the  same  means  and  instruments,  he 
also  gives  them  some  present  nourishment — enough 
to  keep  them  from  starving  or  despairing,  till  he 
gives  them  more.  He  lets  them  know,  that  although 
salvation  "is  not  of  him  that  willeth  nor  of  him 
that  runneth,"  yet,  that  it  is  "of  God  that  showeth 
mercy'' — and  that,  although  "It  is  not  of  works, 
lest  any  man  should  boast,"  yet,  that  "  it  is  of  faith, 
that  it  might  be  by  GRACE  ;  to  the  end  the  promise 
might  be  sure  to  all  the  seed.z  Thus  they  are  kept 
ruminating,  hoping,  and  seeking. 

3.  Joseph,  while   he  had   not  yet  made  himself 

*Gen.  xlii,  25.     'Luke  x.  25—28.     sRom.  iv.  16.   v   "* 


460  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.        [SKR.  XIV. 

known  to  his  brethren,  caused  a  feast  to  be  prepared 
for  them ;  the  incidents  of  which  are  instructive. 

"  He  said  to  the  ruler  of  his  house,"  who  is  after- 
wards called  his  steward,  "Bring  these  men"  (his 
brethren)  "home,  and  slay,  and  make  ready:  for 
these  men  shall  dine  with  me  at  noon."  Hence,  let 
every  steward  in  the  house  of  Christ,  that  is,  every 
gospel-minister,  learn  that,  in  his  studies,  he  should 
always  labor  to  make  ready  a  meal  for  seeking  souls. 

"The  men,"  it  is  true,  "were  afraid  because  they 
were  brought  into  Joseph's  house ;"  and,  apprehen- 
sive of  some  evil,  said,  "  Because  of  the  money 
that  was  returned  in  our  sacks  at  the  first  time  are 
we  brought  in ;  that  he  may  seek  occasion  against 
us,  and  take  us  for  bondmen."  In  like  manner, 
those  in  whom  a  work  of  grace  is  begun,  though 
allured  to  come  under  the  word,  yet,  finding  the 
tenor  of  the  gospel  to  contradict  and  condemn  their 
former  views  of  purchasing  the  divine  favor,  they 
are  filled  with  apprehensions  that  Christ,  instead  of 
saving  them,  will  regard  them  as  mere  legalists,  and 
adjudge  them  to  everlasting  bondage  under  the  law. 

Joseph's  brethren,  however,  in  their  distress, 
communed  with  his  steward ;  who,  it  should  seem, 
was  made  acquainted  with  the  reasons  why  Joseph 
had  ordered  that  their  money  should  be  returned  and 
that  they  should  be  brought  to  his  house  ;  and  who, 
after  hearing  their  ingenuous  rehearsal  of  what  had 
befallen  them  in  regard  to  the  money,  comforted 
them,  saying,  Peace  be  to  you,  fear  not.  What  an 
advantage  it  is  to  sensible  sinners,  that  the  stewards 
of  Christ,  his  gospel-ministers,  are  acquainted  with 
their  case !  For,  when  they  commune  with  them, 
or  sit  under  their  ministry,  they  learn  that  Christ's 


SER.  XIV.]          JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  461 

rejection  of  their  legal  pleas,  and  his  granting 
to  them  the  privilege  of  hearing  his  pure  gospel, 
however  they  are  thereby  stripped  and  emptied,  are 
signs  of  his  favor  and  not  of  his  wrath  :  This  manre- 
ceiveth  sinners,  and  eateth  with  them.  Luke  xvii.  2. 
When  dinner  time  arrived,  Joseph  said  to  his 
servants,  Set  on  bread ;  that  is,  set  dinner  in  order 
upon  the  table;  bread,  by  a  usual  synecdoche,  being 
put  for  the  whole.  "  And  they  set  on  for  him  by  him- 
self, and  for  them,"  his  brethren,  "  by  themselves, 
and  for  the  Egyptians  by  themselves.  And  they," 
Joseph's  brethren  "  sat  before  him,"  in  his  presence ; 
"  and  the  men,"  thus  honored,  marvelled  one  at 
another,  that  they  were  so  distinguished.  "  And  he," 
Joseph,  "  took  and  sent  messes  unto  them  from  be- 
fore him ;  but,"  with  reference  to  the  ten,  "Benjamin's 
mess  was  five  times  as  much  as  any  of  theirs." 
All  had  plenty ;  but  the  fivefold  portion  sent  to  Ben- 
jamin was  a  token  of  Joseph's  special  affection  for 
him.*  And  they  drank"  also,  no  doubt  of  Joseph's 
best  wine,  "and  were  merry  with  him,"  that  is,  at 
his  house.  How  similar  the  conduct  of  Christ,  and 
the  work  of  his  ministers,  under  the  gospel-dispensa- 
tion !  Here  Christ  himself,  by  his  Spirit,  carves  for 
all  the  guests ;  distributing,  of  his  bounty,  to  them 

*  This  served  to  prepare  Benjamin  for  his  more  than  common 
share  in  a  then  approaching  trial :  the  cup  was  found  in  Benjamin's 
tack.  Gen.  xliv.  12.  Thus,  if  some  of  Christ's  brethren,  equally 
innocent  with  the  rest,  have  to  drink  a  more  than  ordinary  portion 
of  the  cup  of  his  sufferings,  that  is,  of  sufferings  for  his  sake,  they 
are  prepared  for  it  and  supported  under  it,  by  a  correspondent 
share  in  the  tokens  of  his  love :  As  the  sufferings  of  Christ  abound 
in  us  ;  so  our  consolation  also  aboundeth  by  Christ.  2  Cor.  i.  5. 


462  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.        [SER.  XlV, 

severally  as  he  will;  Matt.  xx.  15  and  1  Cor.  xii.  11  ; 
and  his  ministers,  his  faithful  stewards,  acting  under 
his  direction,  give  to  every  class  of  their  hearers  a 
portion  of  meat  in  due  season.  Luke  xii.  42. 

Thus  preaching,  the  servants  of  Christ,  while  they 
assign  the  first  share  to  HIMSELF,  that  is,  give  to  him 
the  glory  of  being  the  Provider  and  the  Subject  of 
the  feast,  (Luke  xiv.  16,  17.)  and  feed  his  church, 
which  is  himself  mystical  ;h  they  also  publish  the 
gospel  to  the  world,1  answering  to  the  Egyptians,  and 
are  specially  careful  to  set  before  sensible  sinners 
a  portion  peculiarly  appropriate  to  them.*  They 
describe  their  exercises  and  appetites,  as  evidences 
of  a  work  of  grace  begun  in  their  souls — exhibit 
the  salvation  that  is  in  Christ,  as  full  and  free — and 
therefore,  as  exactly  adapted  to  them,  now  convinced 
that  they  can  add  nothing  to  it,  nor  bring  any  price 
for  it — and,  moreover,  repeat  and  illustrate  his  own 
gracious  invitations  and  promises,  as  addressed  in  a 
peculiar  manner  to  such.  With  confidence  and 
affection,  they  represent  him,  as  saying  to  them, 
Look  unto  me  and  be  ye  savedk — Ho  every  one  that 
thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters* — If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink™ — Come  unto  me  all 
ye  tha,t  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest* — Him  that  cpmeth  to  me,  I  will  in  no  wise 
cast  out0 — Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven — Blessed  arc  they  that 

*  1  Cor.  xii.  12.     *  Mark.  xvi.  15. 

*  In  so  doing,  gospel-ministers  rightly  divide  the  word  of  truth. 
2  Tim.  ii.  15. 

kls.  xlv.  22.     Ubid.  IF.' 1.      mJohn  vii.  37.      "Matt.  xi.  28. 
°Jotin  vi.  37, 


SER.  XIV.]         JOSEPH   A    TYPE  OF  CHRIST.  463 

mourn :  for  they  shall  be  comforted — Blessed  are 
they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness: 
for  they  shall  befitted.* 

This  rich  and  appropriate  portion,  true  penitents,  to 
whom  it  belongs,  eat  by  themselves — arid,  like  Joseph's 
brethren,  marvel  that  they  should  be  so  highly  favor- 
ed ;  nay  more,  they  also  drink  wine  and  milk  without 
money  and  without  price,*  and  even  begin  to  be  mer- 
ry; they  almostforget  their  poverty  and  their  misery,* 
while  under  the  proclamations  of  grace  and  peace. 

Nor  did  Joseph  merely  feast  his  brethren  at  his 
house ;  he,  moreover,  sent  them  away  with  as  much 
food  in  their  sacks  as  they  could  carry.8  Thus 
Christ,  by  the  ministry  of  his  servants,  not  only  com- 
forts seeking  souls  at  his  house,  while  hearing  his 
gospel,  but  sends  them  away  with  their  hearts  as  full 
of  gracious  influence  and  of  scriptural  matter  for 
meditation,  as,  at  that  stage  of  experience,  they  can 
bear.  Nevertheless,  like  Joseph's  brethren,  they 
cannot  account  for  the  kind  treatment  they  receive ; 
being  still  ignorant  of  their  relation  to  the  bountiful 
GIVER.  They  are  astonished  rather  than  instructed  ; 
and  presently  relapse  into  trouble.  Clouds,  instead 
of  sun-beams,  return  after  the  rain.  Eccl.  xii.  2. 
This  will  more  fully  appear  while  we  observe, 

4.  That  Joseph,  before  he  made  himself  known  to 
his  brethren,  distinguished  them  also  by  farther  trials 
— trials  which,  it  is  true,  were  great  favors  ;  yet,  fa- 
vors wrapped  in  such  clouds  of  mystery,  as,  at  the 
time,  filled  them  with  anguish  and  consternation. 

Their  present,  indeed,  for  aught  that  appears  to 
the  contrary,  he  kindly  accepted;  but  their  pur- 

p  Matt.  v.  3,  4. 6.     *  Is.  Iv.  1.    r  Prov.  xxxi.  6, 7.    •  Gen.  xliv.  1 . 


464  JOSEPH  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST.        [SER.  XIV. 

chase  money,  though  doubled,  he  refused  and  re- 
turned :  He  said  to  his  steward,  "  Put  every  man's 
money  in  his  sack's  mouth,"  where  he  could  not  fail 
of  seeing  it,  as  soon  as  his  sack  was  opened.*  Thus, 
although  Christ  condescends  to  accept  a  thank- 
offering  from  sensible  sinners  for  the  favors  they 
have  received  from  him,  He,  nevertheless,  utterly  re- 
jects, both  their  legal  performances,  and  their  evan- 
gelical exercises,  (and  so  their  double  money,)  while 
brought  as  a  price  for  an  interest  in  his  stores  of 
grace — nay,  gives  them,  as  observed  before,  the  evi- 
dence thereof  in  the  sacks  of  their  own  hearts,  as 
these  are  more  fully  opened  by  his  Spirit,  and  the 
selfish  motives  of  them  are  more  clearly  exposed  to 
their  view,  in  the  light  of  his  word." 

Joseph,  however,  brought  his  brethren  under  a 
still  severer  trial,  the  charge  of  having  stolen  his  silver 
cup.  For,  strange  as  it  was,  he  farther  said  to  his 
steward,  "  Put  my  cup,  the  silver  cup,  in  the  sack's 
mouth  of  the  youngest,  and  his  corn-money ;''  and 
which  the  steward  accordingly  did.w  This  stratagem, 
though  seemingly  fraught  with  injustice  and  cruelty, 
was  both  equitable  and  merciful. 

Joseph's  cup,  consisting,  no  doubt,  of  refined  sil- 
ver, which  is  an  emblem  of  purity,1  was  a  fit  symbol 
of  his  pure  and  excellent  character ;  which  was  of 
much  higher  value  than  a  silver  cup,  or  than  any 
other  earthly  treasure  ;  for  a  good  name  is  to  be  cho- 
sen rather  than  great  riches,  and  loving  favor  rather 
than  silver  and  gold.  Prov.  xxii.  1.  Now  of  this, 
though  not  of  his  cup,  Joseph's  brethren  had  shame- 
fully robbed  him  ;  not,  indeed,  in  his  father's 

*Gen.  xliv.  1.  "Jer.  ii.  22.  xvii.  10.  Eph.  ii.  8,  9.  1  John 
iv.  10.  19.  *  Gen.  xliv.  2.  «  Psal.  xii.  6. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH    A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  465 

esteem,  but  in  the  esteem  of  strangers,  to  whom  they 
sold  him  for  a  slave ;  thereby  implying  that  he  was 
an  abandoned  miscreant,  fit  only  for  the  vilest  servi- 
tude.* And  in  like  manner,  the  Jews,  the  national 
brethren  of  Christ,  treated  him ;  for  though  unable, 
in  the  least,  to  diminish  hirh  in  the  esteem  of  his 
heavenly  Father,  yet,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power, 
they  degraded  him  in  the  esteem  of  men.  They 
riot  only  denied  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  but  even 
robbed  him  of  his  moral  character  ;  they  reviled  him, 
as  being  a  man  gluttonous  and  a  wine-bibber — yea, 
as  one  in  collusion  with  satan/  Nor  do  his  mystical 
brethren,  those  who  are  his  brethren  by  election  and 
adoption,  treat  him  any  better.  In  their  carnal  state, 
they,  like  others,  regard  him  as  unworthy  of  their 
desire  ,**  and,  after  quickened  by  his  grace,  and  made 
to  feel  their  condemnation  as  sinners,  instead  of  re- 
ceiving him  as  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness) 
which  he  is  to  every  one  that  believcth,  they  go  about 
to  establish  their  own  righteousness*  Nay,  such  is  our 
ignorance,  as  well  as  our  pride,  that  even  when  con- 
vinced that  our  best  obedience  is  imperfect,  and  that 
if  it  were  perfect,  it  could  not  answer  for  past  de- 
fects and  transgressions,  instead  of  casting  ourselves, 
as  guilty  and  helpless,  on  Him  who  was  delivered  for 
our  offences  and  raised  again  for  our  justification^ 
we  foolishly  delay,  thinking  to  exercise  such  mortifi- 
cation, contrition,  self-denial  &c.,  as  shall  render  us, 
in  some  measure,  worthy  of  divine  acceptance,  before 

*  Gen.  xxxvii.  28.  36.  Thus  individuals,  families  and  nations 
may  suffer  under  false  accusations,  for  injuries  done  to  others  long 
before.  See  Is.  xxxiii.  1. 

.    yJVfatt.  xk  19.   xii.  24.     *IS.  liii.  2      a  Rom.  x.  3,  4.    *>Ibid. 
iv.  25. 

62 


466  JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST.       [SER. 

we  trust  in  Christ.  Thus,  as  long  as  possible,  we 
rob  HIM  of  the  glory  of  being  ALL  and  in  ALL 
in  our  salvation.  Nevertheless,  being  reconciled  to 
God,  that  is,  to  his  justice,  by  the  death  of  his  Son,c 
we  are  not  left  to  perish  through  our  ignorance  and 
self-confidence  ;  but,  eventually  are  cured  of  both ; 
and  being,  through  grace,  made  to  realize  that  we 
are  without  strength,  we  are  constrained  and  enabled, 
vile  as  we  are,  to  rely  on  Christ  who  in  due  time 
died  for  the  ungodly. d 

Joseph's  cup,  being  that  out  of  which  he  drank,6 
was  also  a  fit  symbol  of  his  sufferings.  And  Christ, 
speaking  of  his  own  sufferings,  and  seemingly  by 
allusion  to  those  of  Joseph,  said,  The  cup  which  my 
Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I  not  drink  it  ?  John 
xviii.  11.  Indeed,  there  is,  in  several  respects,  a 
striking  resemblance  between  the  sufferings  of  Jo- 
seph and  those  of  Christ. 

Were  the  sufferings  of  Joseph  procured  by  the  ill 
conduct  of  his  brethren  ?  Let  it  never  be  forgotten 
that  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  were  procured  by  the 
sins  of  his  mystical  brethren  :  He  was  wounded  for 
our  transgressions  and  bruised  for  our  iniquities. 
Is.  liii.  5. 

Was  Joseph,  though  exposed  to  sufferings  by  the 
ill  conduct  of  his  brethren,  ordained  of  God  to  be 
the  instrument  of  saving  their  lives  by  a  great  de- 
liverance ?f  The  same  is  true  of  Christ ;  for  though 
he  suffered  as  the  Substitute  of  his  guilty  brethren 
and  by  wicked  hands  was  crucified  and  slain,  he  was, 
nevertheless,  "  delivered  by  the  determinate  coun- 
sel and  foreknowledge  of  God,"  and  died  that  we 

c  Rom.  v.  10.     d  Ibid.  ver.  6.     e  Gen.  xliv.  5.     f Ibid.  xlv.  7. 


SBR.  XIV.]         JOSEPH    A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  467 

might  live  :  He  was  delivered  for  our  offences  and 
raised  again  for  our  justification.  Rom.  iv.  25. 
As  Joseph's  sufferings  were  occasioned  by  his 
brethren,  it  was  fit  and  requisite,  that,  by  some  means, 
he  should  make  their  ill  treatment  of  him  bitter  to 
them,  before  he  admitted  them  to  his  fraternal  fel- 
lowship. This  he  had  done  in  some  measure,  when 
he  accused  them  of  being  spies,  and  put  them 
into  ward  for  three  days :  for  then,  "  They  said  one 
to  another,  We  are  verily  guilty  concerning  our 
brother,  in  that  we  saw  the  anguish  of  his  soul,  when 
he  besought  us,  and  we  would  not  hear:  therefore 
is  this  distress  come  upon  us.  And  Reuben  an- 
swered them,  saying,  Spake  not  I  unto  you,  saying, 
Do  not  sin  against  the  child  ;  and  ye  would  not  hear  ? 
Therefore  behold  also  his  blood  is  required."  This 
conversation  passed  between  them  in  the  presence 
of  Joseph;  but,  taking  him  to  be  an  Egyptian, 
"  they  knew  not  that  Joseph  understood  them  ;  for 
he  spake  unto  them  by  an  interpreter.''^  Still 
more  poignantly,  however,  he  brought  that  great 
wickedness  to  their  remembrance  by  laying  his  cup, 
the  symbol  of  his  sufferings,  to  their  charge.  For 
when  the  stealth,  to  all  appearance,  was  undeniably 
proved  upon  them,  Judah,  in  the  name  of  the  whole, 
said  to  Joseph,  by  whose  direction  the  discovery 
was  made,  "  What  shall  we  say  unto  iny  lord  ? 
what  shall  we  speak?  or  how  shall  we  clear  our- 
selves?" To  confess  the  charge  would  have  been 
a  violation  of  conscience;  and  to  deny  it,  could 
have  been  of  no  avail,  seeing  the  cup  alleged  to  be 
stolen,  was  actually  found  in  Benjamin's  sack.  Ju- 

e  Gen.  xlii.  14—23. 


468  JOSEPH   A   TYPE    OF   CHRIST.        [sER.  XIV. 

dah,  therefore,  wisely  understood  and  admitted,  that 
the  dilemma  into  which  they  were  brought  was  a 
punishment  divinely  inflicted  upon  them  for  their 
past  sins ;  and  every  conscience,  no  doubt,  felt  that  it 
was    specially   for   their   sin  in   selling  Joseph; — 
"  God,"  said  he,  "hath  found  out,"  that  is,  disclosed 
the  iniquity  of  thy  servants,  &c.     Gen.  xliv.  16.     In 
like  manner    Christ  deals  with  his  brethren.     He 
brings,  indeed,  much  of  their  guilt  to  their  remem- 
brance, while  he  holds  them  in  ward  under  the  law, 
and  speaks  to  them  by  his  Interpreter,  the  Holy  Spir- 
it :  here  he  shows  them  that  they  are  rebels  against 
God,  and  that  they  cannot  be  justified  in  his  sight, 
by  their  obedience  to  the  law ;  for  by  the  law  is  the 
knowledge,  not   of  justification,   but  of  sin.     See 
Rom.  iii.  20.  and  vii.  8 — 11.     But,  it  is  by  charging 
them  with  the  cup  of  his  sufferings,  that  he  pierces 
their  hearts  and  makes  them,  in  the  bitterness  of 
their  souls,  to  cry,  What  shall  we  do  ?  Acts  ii.  36,  37. 
Joseph,  moreover,  employed  his  cup  in  making 
trial  of  his  brethren.     His  steward,  it  is  true,  when 
speaking  by  his  direction,  is   represented  by   our 
Version  and  several   others,  as  saying  of  the  cup, 
"  Is  not  this  it  in  which    my  lord    drinketh  ?   and 
whereby  indeed  he  divineth?"     Gen.  xliv.  5.     But 
this  cannot  be  the  sense  of  the  original;  for,  though 
it  is  not  improbable  that  the  Egyptians  really  sup- 
posed that   Joseph,  like  the  soothsayers   of  their 
own  and  other  nations,  practised  divination,  and  that 
he  thereby  interpreted  dreams  and  discovered  and 
revealed  secrets,  that  supposition  is  wholly  inconsist- 
ent  with  his  revealed  character;   nor  is  it  at  all 
credible,  that  he  designed  to  make  such  an  impres 
sion  on  the  mind  of  his  steward,  and  much  less,  that 


SER.  XIV.]       JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST.  469 

he  was  willing,  through  him,  to  make  that  impres- 
sion on  the  minds  of  his  brethren.  Wherefore,  I 
understand  the  word  rendered  divincth,  to  be  used 
in  this  place  in  a  different  acceptation.  Its  root,  (PHJ 
nachash,)  signifies  not  only  to  divine,  but  also  to  ob- 
serve, to  try,  to  make  an  experiment.  Thus  using  the 
word,  Laban  said  to  Jacob  Y»»m  nichashtee,  I  have 
learned  by  experience.  Gen.  xxx.  27.  Comp.  1  Kings 
xx.  33.  Now,  the  word  in  question  being  so  under- 
stood, the  interrogatories  which  Joseph's  steward, 
by  his  direction,  put  to  the  supposed  strangers,  im- 
ported as  much  as  if  he  had  said — Is  not  this  evidently 
the  cup  which  my  Master  appropriates  to  his  own 
personal  use — nay,  the  cup  which  you  saw  him  thus 
appropriate,  when  lately  you  were  so  kindly  and 
so  bountifully  entertained  at  his  house  ?  And  was  it 
not  to  make  trial  of  your  honesty,  of  which  he  was 
very  doubtful,  that  he  left  this  valuable  article  within 
your  convenient  reach,  when  he  withdrew  from  his 
tablel  It  was:  and  by  the  experiment,  behold,  he 
has  proved  you  to  be  filchers ! 

This  also  well  comports  with  Joseph's  real  design 
in  the  stratagem;  which  was  to  make  trial  of  his 
elder  brethren  in  different  respects.  As  they  had 
envied  him,  whom  his  father  had  distinguished,  he 
thought  proper  to  try  whether,  in  like  manner,  they 
would  envy  his  brother  Benjamin,  whom  he  had 
distinguished  at  his  table,  by  sending  him  a  fivefold 
mess.  And,  as  envy  is  sure  to  manifest  itself  by  a 
ready  concurrence  with  any  charge,  true  or  false, 
brought  against  its  object,  Joseph  prudently  caused 
his  cup  to  be  put  into  Benjamin's  sack,  that  his  elder 
brethren,  if  so  disposed,  might  have  a  fair  pretence  for 
delivering  him  up  as  a  thief;  and  which  the  Jews 


470  JOSEPH   A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST.        [sER.  XIV* 

think  the  rest  would  have  done,  but  for  the  opposition 
and  influence  of  Judah.  By  the  same  means,  Jo- 
seph also  made  trial  of  their  filial  affection  ;  they 
well  knowing  how  much  the  life  of  their  father  was 
bound  up  in  the  lad,  namely  Benjamin.  Gen.  xliv,  30. 

Thus  Christ,  by  the  cup  of  his  sufferings,  both 
personal  and  relative,  tries  his  called  brethren,  and 
distinguishes  them  from  others. 

By  Christ's  personal  sufferings,  I  mean  those 
which  he  endured  in  his  own  human  nature.  By 
these  he  tries — 1.  Our  faith.  They  who  have  only 
an  historical  faith  in  him,  though  they  may  be  elated 
with  a  notion  of  being  saved  by  him,  feel  no  broken- 
ness  of  heart  nor  contrition  of  spirit,  and,  there 
fore,  no  sympathy  with  him  in  his  sufferings;  but 
his  called  brethren,  being  regenerated  and  made 
partakers  of  \hatfaithwhich  is  a  fruit  of  the  Spirit* 
come  to  him  filled  with  self-abasement  and  godly 
sorrow  on  account  of  their  sins ;  they  look  upon  him 
whom  they  have  pierced  and  mourn.* — 2.  How  we 
are  affected  toward  the  design  of  his  death  ;  which 
was  not  only  to  redeem,  but  thereupon,  to  purify 
also,  those  for  whom  he  died  :  for  he  gave  himself  for 
us,  that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and 
purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of 
good  works.* 

Now,  many  who  talk  much  about  redemption  by 
Christ,  and  warmly  dispute  whether  it  is  particular, 
general,  or  universal,  are,  nevertheless,  strangers  to 
the  purifying  efficacy  of  his  precious  blood,  as  ap- 
plied to  the  conscience  by  the  Holy  Spirit — nay, 
live  as  they  list,  unconcerned  about  holiness  of 

*  Gal.  v,  22.   *  Zech.  xii.  10.     John  xix.  37.     k  Titus  ii.  14, 


SER.  XIV.]      JOSEPH   A   TYPE   OF   CHRIST.  471 

heart  or  life.  But  the  called  brethren  of  Christ, 
with  the  apostles,  perceive  and  realize,  that  when  he 
died  for  all,  that  is,  for  all  he  represented  among 
all  nations,  (all  being  alike  dead,)  he  died  for  all, 
that  they  who  live,  being  regenerated  and  justified, 
should  not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves,  but  un- 
to him  who  died/or  them,  and  rose  again.  See  2 
Cor.  v.  14, 13. 

By  the  relative  sufferings  of  Christ,  I  mean  the 
sufferings  of  his  mystical  body,  the  church  ;  that  is, 
the  sufferings  which  his  vital  members  endure,  be- 
cause of  their  relation  and  union  to  him,  and  the 
profession  of  their  faith  in  him.1  Addressing  such, 
the  apostle  says,  Unto  you  it  is  given  in  the  behalf 
of  Christ,  not  only  to  believe  on  him,  but  also  to  suf- 
fer for  his  sake.™  In  the  present  life  they  are  all 
imperfect  ;n  and  when  they  depart  from  the  stan- 
dard of  God's  revealed  will,  either  by  omission  or 
commission,  though  they  come  not  under  the  curse  ; 
Christ  having  redeemed  them  from  it ;°  they,  ne- 
vertheless, come  under  the  discipline  of  the  cove- 
nant, as  administered  by  their  heavenly  Father : 
Then,  saith  he,  will  1  visit  their  transgressions  with 
a  rod,  and  their  iniquity  with  stripes.p  This  rod, 
however  severe  its  stripes,  is  applied  as  the  effect  of 
covenant-love  and  faithfulness  :  When  we  are  judg- 
ed, we  are  chastened  of  the  Lord,  that  we  should  not 
be  condemned  with  the  world,  and  that  we  might  be 
partakers  of  his  holiness.'1  Believers,  however,  suf- 
fer much  wrongfully  from  the  tongue  of  slander ;  yet 
to  this  also,  a  blessing  is  annexed :  Blessed  are  ye, 

1  Col.  i.  24.  1  Pet.  iv.  13.  "*  Philip,  i.  29.  n  Ecc.  vii.  20.  1  John 
i.  8.  »  Gal.  in.  13.  p  Psal.  Ixxxix.  32.  <t  1  Cor.  xi.  32.  Heb, 
xii.  9—11. 


472  JOSEPH   A   TYPE    OF   CHRIST.       [sER.  XIV. 

said  Christ  to  his  disciples,  when  men  shall  revile 
you,  and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of 
evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my  sake.  Rejoice  and 
be  exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your  reward  in 
heaven ;  for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which 
were  before  you.*  Nay,  even  when  they  are  overtaken 
in  faults,  the  enemies  of  truth  and  righteousness 
reproach  them,  not  because  they  have  sinned,  but 
because  they  are  professed  disciples  of  Christ ;  for 
the  same  imperfections,  which  in  others  pass  unno- 
ticed, if  observed  in  them,  are  magnified  and  made 
the  occasion  of  scandal  to  the  Christian  name  :  This 
fellow  was  also  with  Jems  of  Nazareth.*  Did  not  I 
see  thee  in  the  garden  with  him  ?*  How  careful,  then, 
should  professors  be  to  give  no  just  occasion  to  the 
adversary  to  blaspheme,  or  to  speak  reproachfully  /u 

And  under  these  relative  sufferings  also  (both  un- 
der those  which  they  endure  from  the  discipline  of 
the  covenant,  because  they  belong  to  Christ,  and 
under  those  which  they  endure  from  the  tongue  of 
slander  and  the  hand  of  persecution,  because  they 
profess  his  name)  Christ  variously  tries  them. — 
Hereby, 

1.  He  tries  and  brings  to  light  their  reconcilia- 
tion to  the  will  of  his  and  their  heavenly  Father. 
For  while  others,  under  afflictive  providences,  re- 
bel and  murmur,  an  afflicted  saint,  under  the  rod 
of  the  covenant,  says,  with  ELI,  It  is  the  Lord ;  let 
him  do  what  seemeth  him  good  ;w  with  DAVID,  It  is 
good  for  me  that  I  have  been  afflicted,  that  I  might 
learn  thy  statutes  ;*  with  JOB,  Shall  we  receive  good 
at  the  hand  of  God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  evil, 

*  Matt.  v.  11. 12.  s  Ibid,  xxvi,  71.  *  John  xviii.  26.  »  1  Tim. 
vi.  1.  Titus  ii.  1— 11.  w  1.  Sam.  iii.  18.  x  Psal.  cxix.  71. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH   A  TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  473 

meaning  the  evil  of  affliction  !y  nay,  with  him  also, 
Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him*— and,  with 
PAUL,  I  reckon,  that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time 
are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory  that 
shall  be  revealed  in  us*  Such  too,  is  the  tenor  of 
apostolic  exhortation,  addressed  to  believers  :  We 
pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  Godb 
— Humble  yourselves,  therefore,  under  the  mighty 
hand  of  God,  that  he  may  exalt  you  in  due  time.c 

2.  He  tries,  and  makes  manifest,  the  reality  of 
their  attachment  to  himself  and  his  gospel.     Some 
receive   his   word    under  the    mere    influence    of 
passion,  and  others  under  the   prospect  of  worldly 
gain.     The  former,  when  their  gust  of  passion  has 
subsided,  and  the  latter  when  their  hope  of  world- 
ly gain  is  blasted,  presently  take  offence  at  his  doc- 
trine   or  his   government,    and  forsake    his   cause 
and  his  kingdom.d    Not  so  his  true  disciples.    They, 
assured  that  he  is  the  divine  Messiah,  and  having 
received  his  gospel  in  the  love  of  it,  cannot  forsake 
him,  nor  exchange  his  doctrine  for  that  of  another. — 
When  He,  observing  how  hypocrites  forsook  him, 
said  to  the  twelve,  Will  ye  also  go  away  ?     Peter 
answered  him,  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?    thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life.6 

3.  He  tries  their  love  to  each  other,  and  thereby, 
their  love  to  God.     For  every  one  that  lovtth  him 
that  begat,  lovcth  him  also  that  is  begotten  of  him.* 
That  the  professed  disciples  of  Christ  may  be  tried 
in  this  way,  it  is  so  ordered  in  Providence,  that  while 
some  of  them  are  rich,  others  are  destitute  and  in 

y  Jobii.  10.  z  Ibid.  xiii.  15.  aRom.  viii.  18.  b2  Cor.  v.  20. 
c  1  Pet.  v.  6.  d  Matt.  xiii.  20.  John  vi.  26,  27.  66.  •  Ibid.  ver. 
67,68.  '1  John  v.l. 

63 


474  JOSEPH   A   TYPE    OF   CHRIST.        [SEE.  XIV. 

need  of  their  liberality :  But  whoso  hath  this  world's 
good9  and  seeth  his  brother  have  need,  and  shutteth  up 
his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him,  how  dwelleth  the 
love  of  God  in  him  ?s     In  other  instances  and   to 
answer  the  same  end,  some  of  God's  children  are 
strangely  and   unaccountably    brought   under   the 
apparent  guilt  of  some  immorality — perhaps,  like 
Benjamin,  they  are  charged  with  theft,  or,  like  Jo- 
seph, with  unchastity — and,  though  innocent  as  they, 
circumstances  may  be  such,  that,  like  them,  they 
may  be  unable,  for  the  time  being,  to  demonstrate 
their   innocence.     Here  the  feelings  of  their  bre- 
thren toward  them,  are  deeply  tested.     Those  who 
secretly  disliked  them  before,  will  readily — nay  glad- 
ly, admit  and  even  abet  the  accusations  against  them, 
and  so  leave  them  to  the  power  of  their  accusers. 
For,  however  with  their  lips  they  may  seem  to  regret 
it,  the  language  of  their  heart  is,  Ah,  so  would  we 
have  it.h     But  they  who  have  cordially  loved  and 
fellowshipped  them,  as  Christians,  feel  and  act  very 
differently  toward  them.     They  call  upon  them — 
inquire  into  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  at- 
tach that  respect  to  their  declarations,  which  is  due 
from  one  Christian  to  another;  and,  knowing  that  Satan 
is  the  accuser,  not  of  the  profane,  nor  of  hypocrites, 
but  of  the  brethren1 — that  he  is  never  at  a  loss  for 
agents,  ready  and  qualified  to  serve  him  in  this 
work  of  darkness — that^alse  accusations  may  be  so 
contrived,  in  relation  to  times  and  circumstances, 
as  to  have  a  great  show  of  plausibility — and  that 
Christ,  to  bring  to  light  the  enmity   of  the  devil 
against  the  church,  and  to  manifest  the  strength  of 

*  1  John  iii.  17.     *  Psal.  xxxv.  25.     »  Rev,  xii.  10. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH   A  TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  475 

his  own  grace  in  supporting  his  falsely  accused 
brethren,  in  some  instances,  suffers  such  accusa- 
tions to  be  loudly  rumored  and  long  sustained ; — 
knowing  these  things,  I  say,  the  cordial  friends  of 
those  accused,  Judge  not  according  to  appearance, 
but  judge  righteous  judgment.*  Wherefore,  influ- 
enced by  that  charity,  that  Christian  love,  which 
envieth  not,  and  which  thinketh  no  evil,1  they  cannot 
abandon  their  accused  brethren  to  public  odium, 
but  upon  unequivocal  and  undeniable  evidence  of 
their  guilt ;  and  even  then,  so  far  are  they  from  ex- 
ulting in  the  facts  thus  proved,  (as  the  ungodly  do,) 
that  they  deeply  deplore  them,  and  the  case  of  those 
found  guilty  of  them.  Their  hearts  bleed  with  the 
bleeding  cause  of  their  dear  REDEEMER.  They  re- 
gard the  sad  affair,  as  a  common  wound  to  the 
household  of  faith — as  a  humiliating  stroke  to  the 
whole  church — and,  in  bitterness  of  soul,  say  to 
JESUS,  as  Judah  said  to  Joseph,  God  hath  found  out, 
that  is,  exposed  the  iniquity  of  thy  servants — the 
iniquity  that  had  been  committed  among  them.  By 
such  falls  among  professors,  God  affects  the  hearts 
of  survivors  with  an  a' arming  sense  of  their  own  in- 
dwelling depravity,  and  mb  t'  ers  to  them  the  remem- 
brance of  their  own  past  transg  essions — yea,  exem- 
plifies before  them  what  they  afe  all  still  liable  to, 
unless  his  grace  preserve  them.  Thus  he  that 
thinketh  he  standeth,  is  admonished  to  take  heed  lest 
he  fall* 

Having  considered  Joseph's  knowledge  of  his 
brethren  and  his  conduct  toward  them  while  they 
knew  not  him,  let  us  precede  to  consider, 

k  John  vii.  24.     1 1  Cor.  xiii.  4,  5.    m  Ibid.  x.  12. 


476  JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST.       [SER.  XIV. 

Thirdly,  His  making  himself  known  unto  them. 
To  this  he  was  moved  by  the  admirable  speech  of 
Judah  ;*  which,  for  artless  simplicity,  pertinent  rea- 
soning, and  humble  importunity,  we  may  safely  say 
has  never  been  exceeded.  It  is  so  explicit  and  so 
beautiful,  that  any  human  attempt  to  explain  or  to 
embellish  it,  must  necessarily  tend  to  obscure  and 
deface  it.  You  are,  therefore,  left  to  read  it,  with- 
out comment,  as  it  is  found  in  Gen.  xliv.  18 — 34. 

The  narrative  of  its  influence  upon  Joseph,  be- 
gins with  Chapter  xlv. 

Then  (ver.  1.)  Joseph  could  not  refrain  himself 
before  all  them  that  stood  by  him ;  and  he  cried, 
probably  to  his  steward,  cause  every  man  to  go  out 
from  me,  meaning  every  man,  except  the  reputed 
strangers,  then  under  examination  :  and  there  stood 
no  man  with  him,  while  Joseph  made  himself  known 
unto  his  brethren.  And  (ver.  2)  he  wept  aloud ;  and 
the  Egyptians  and  the  house  of  Pharaoh  heard ;  the 
Egyptians,  though  withdrawn  to  adjoining  apart- 
ments, heard  him  weep,  and,  through  them,  the  re- 
port thereof  soon  reached  the  house  of  Pharaoh, 
not  far  from  which,  it  is  presumable,  stood  the  house 
of  Joseph,  his  Prime-Minister. 

By  this  precautionary  measure,  Joseph  wisely  and 
kindly  prevented  any  needless  exposure  of  his  bre- 
thren's faults ;  which,  on  that  interesting  occasion, 
he  must  necessarily  mention,  and  they  confess. — 
Nor  does  it  appear  from  the  sacred  history,  that 
their  cruel  treatment  of  him,  or  any  of  their  former 
crimes,  were  ever  made  known  in  Egypt.  Thus, 
our  divine  Joseph,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  does  not 

*  Who  had  become  surety  for  Benjamin.  Gen.  xJiii.  9.  xliy.  32. 


SER.  XIV.]      JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST.  477 

require  that  his  redeemed,  when  called  and  brought 
under  conviction  by  his  word  and  spirit,  should  pub- 
lish their  particular  sins  before  men.  It  is  enough 
that  they  realize  the  evil  of  them  in  their  own  souls 
— confess  them  before  God — abhor  and  forsake 
them — and  that  they  rely,  for  the  pardon  of  them, 
on  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  which 
alone  can  satisfy  divine  justice  for  sin.  And  as  Jo- 
seph, for  the  honor  of  his  family,  provided  for  keep- 
ing the  knowledge  of  their  faults  between  himself 
and  them,  that  his  .brethren  might  not  be  exposed  to 
contempt  in  Egypt;  so  Christ,  for  the  honor  of  his 
name  and  kingdom,  has  provided  that  his  brethren, 
when  overtaken  in  faults,  if  penitent  and  reformed, 
should  not  be  exposed  to  reproach  in  the  world :  If 
thy  brother,  says  he,  trespass  against  thee,  go  and 
tell  him  his  fault  between  thee  and  him  alone:  if  he 
shall  hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy  brother.  But 
if  he  will  not  hear  thee,  then  take  with  thee  one  or 
two  more,  that  in  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witness- 
es every  word  may  be  established.  And  if  he  shall 
neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  it  to  the  CHURCH — not  to 
the  WORLD  ;  but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  CHURCH,  let 
him  be  unto  thee  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican." 
Many  godly  men,  indeed,  have  been  of  the  opinion, 
that  Christ  will  not  make  known  the  sins  of  his 
redeemed,  even  at  the  last  judgment.  But  if  he 
does,  it  will  only  be  to  magnify  the  riches  of  his  Fa- 
ther's grace  toward  them,  and  the  value  of  his  own 
sacrifice  for  them,  when  he  shall  come  to  be  glorified 
in  his  saints,  and  to  be  admired  in  all  them  that  be- 
lieve? Nay,  when  arrived  in  heaven,*  the  saved,  ih- 

B  Matt,  xviii.  15—17.     °  2  Thess.  i.  10. 


478  JOSEPH   A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST.        [SER.  XIV. 

stead  of  particularizing  the  kinds  and  degrees  of 
their  guilt,  will  harmoniously  join  in  the  everlasting 
song,  Unto  him  that  hath  loved  us  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  &c.p  Christ,  more- 
over, like  Joseph,  reveals  himself  to  his  brethren 
alone;  for,  both  at  their  calling  and  during  their 
pilgrimage,  He  manifests  himself  to  them,  as  he 
does  not  unto*the  world.  See  John  xiv.  22. 

The  progress,  too,  which  Joseph  observed  in  mak- 
ing himself  known  to  his  brethren,  is  worthy  of  no- 
tice and  full  of  instruction. 

1.  He  merely  announced  himself  to  them  by  his 
proper  name,  saying,  I  AM  JOSEPH — to  which,  how- 
ever, at  once  to  show  his  filial  affection,  and  to  con- 
vince them  that  he  knew  who  they  were  and  whence 
they  came,  he  annexed  the  inquiry,  Doth  my  father 
yet  live  ?  We  need  not  marvel  at  what  followed. — 
And  his  brethren  could  not  answer  him :  for,  as 
might  be  expected,  they  were  troubled,  yea,  terrified, 
as  the  word  signifies,  at  his  presence.*  For  now, 
recognizing  in  the  lord  of  Egypt  their  long  discard- 
ed brother,  whom,  to  his  own  and  his  father's  unut- 
terable grief,  they  had  sold  to  strangers,  they  were 
so  stung  with  remorse — confused  with  shame — and 
filled  with  the  dread  of  just  retaliation,  that,  for  a 
while,  they  could  make  no  reply.  How  similar  is  the 
condition  of  poor  sinners,  when  first  they  hear  the 
voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  so  as  to  live,  and  begin  to  see 
his  majesty  and  his  glory,  in  the  light  of  the  gospel! 
He,  indeed,  says  to  them,  I  AM  JESUS,  that  is,  the 
SAVIOUR  ;  but  they,  recollecting  their  long  neglect 
and  contempt  of  him,  and  their  base  requital  of  his 

p  Rer.  i.  5, 6.    *  Gen.  xlv.  3. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH   A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  479 

Father's  kindness,  in  sending  him  into  the  world, 
can  scarcely  even  hope  that  he  will  save  them. — 
Hence,  laden  with  guilt,  and  filled  with  shame  and 
grief,  they  know  not  what  to  say  or  do. 

2.  Joseph,  perceiving  his  brethren  to  be  thus  con- 
founded and  dismayed,  and,  perhaps,  receding  from 
him,  kindly  said  to  them,  Come  near  to  me,  I  pray  you.* 
What  an  encouraging  invitation !    Yet,  much  more 
so  is  that  of  Christ,  in  which  he  says  to  sensible 
sinners,  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.     Did  the 
brethren  of  Joseph  draw  near  to  him,  at  his  call  ?• 
How  much  more,  at  the  call  of  JESUS,  should  heavy 
laden  sinners  be  prevailed  on  to  go  to  HIM  ! 

3.  Joseph's  brethren  having  approached  him,  he 
explicitly  declared  his  relation  to  them,  saying,  I  AM 
JOSEPH    YOUR  BROTHER  ;s    and   though  he    added, 
whom  ye  sold  into  Egypt,  it  was  not  to  reproach 
them,  but,  at  once  to  identify  and  to  endear  him- 
self to  them.     Thus  when  sensible  sinners,  encou- 
raged by  the  gospel  invitation,  are  enabled  to  come 
to  Christ  by  faith,  He  graciously  reveals  himself  in 
his  covenant- relation  to  them.     He,  in  effect,  says, 
I  AM  JESUS  YOUR  BROTHER  ;   and  though  he  now 
again   causes  them  to  look  upon  him  whom  they 
have  pierced  and  mourn,  the  affecting  sight  only 
serves  to  confirm  their  faith  and  to  increase  their 
love.     Nay,  the  very  imputation  of  his  death  proves 
that  it  was  for  them,  and  tends  to  enhance  his  va- 
lue to  them :   Unto  you,  therefore,  that  believe  he  is 
precious.     1  Pet.  ii.  7. 

4.  Joseph,  to  alleviate  his  brethren,  under  the  self- 
reproach  which  they  still  felt  at  the  remembrance  of 
r  Gen.  xlv.  4.  « Ibid. 


480  JOSEPH  A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST.       [SEK.  XIV. 

how  they  had  treated  him,  instructively  adverted  to 
the  concern  which  God  had  in  the  matter.  Address- 
ing them,  he  said,  Be  not  grieved  nor  angry  with 
yourselves,  that  ye  sold  me  hither :  for  God  did  send 
me  before  you  to  preserve  life.  So  now  it  was  not 
you  that  sent  me  hither,  but  God ;  and  He,  strange 
as  it  is,  hath  made  me  . .  .  .  ruler  throughout  all  the 
land  of  Egypt*  So  Christ,  to  instruct  the  minds 
and  to  assuage  the  sorrows  of  his  penitent  diciples, 
lets  them  know  that  he  was  delivered  by  the  determi- 
nate counsel  and  fore-knowledge  of  God — that  he 
suffered  for  them  by  covenant-stipulation  (which 
Joseph  did  not  for  his  brethren) — that  the  things 
which  he  suffered,  being  those  predicted  and  typi- 
fied of  the  true  Messiah,  proved  him  to  be  the  PERSON 
— and,  that  such  was  the  tenor  of  the  covenant,  that 
his  mediatorial  sufferings  were  all  prerequisite  to 
his  mediatorial  exaltation  :  Ought  not  THE  CHRIST 
(rov  %p«s"ov)  to  have  suffered  these  things,  and  to  enter 
into  his  glory  ?u — that  glory  which,  by  covenant- grant, 
he  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was.w  Jo- 
seph's brethren  had,  indeed,  been  ill-affected  toward 
him :  As  for  you,  said  he  to  them,  ye  thought  evil 
against  me  ;  but  God  meant  it  unto  good,  to  bring 
to  pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive.* 
And  so,  though  Jews  and  Gentiles  were  exceeding- 
ly ill-affected  toward  Christ,  and  took  and  crucified 
him  with  wicked  hands,  yet  God  meant  it  unto  the 
highest  conceivable  good,  namely,  to  save  from  eter- 
nal death,  a  multitude  which  no  man  can  number, 
of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people,  and 
tongues.  Rev.  vii.  9. 

*  Gen.  xlv.  8.    u  Luke  xxiv.  26.  w  John  xvii.  5.  *  Gen.  1.  20. 


SER.  XIV.]        JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  481 

5.  The  coming  of  Joseph's  brethren  to  him  in 
Egypt,  excited  much  interest  at  court:   The  fame 
thereof  was  heard  in  Pharaohs  house,  messengers 
and  courtiers,  saying,  Josephs  brethren  are  corner — 
Let  this  remind  us  of  the  exultation  in  Zion,  the 
earthly  palace  of  God,  when  lost  sinners,  found  and 
called  by  grace,  come  to  Christ  and  to  his  church, 
THEN  ministers  and  other  Christians  joyfully  con- 
gratulate each  other,  saying,    The  ransomed  of  the 
Lord  are  come.    Thus,  at  the  return  of  the  prodigal 
to  his  father's  house,   they  (the    members  of  the 
household)  began  to  be  merry  ;z  and  when  many  in 
Samaria  believed,  There  was  great  joy  in  that  city? 
Nay,  the  tidings,  borne  with  angelic  flight,  reach  the 
courts  of  Heaven,  and  gladden  all  the  inhabitants 
there :   There  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of 
God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth.     Luke  xv.  10. 

6.  Joseph,  having  made  himself  known  to  his  bre- 
thren, and  having  thus  instructively  addressed  them, 
sealed  his  love   to  each  with  a  kissb — made  them 
all  acceptable  at  court,  (Pharaoh  himself  and  all  his 
servants  being  well  pleased,0) — and,  hiding  all  their 
faults  from  the  king,  procured  his  royal  concurrence 
on  their  behalf.d     How   similar  is  the   manner  in 
which  our  divine  Joseph,  the  Lord  Jesus,  treats  his 
redeemed !       On  making  himself  known  to  them, 
he  not  only  kindly  instructs  them,  but  also  sweetly 
discovers  his  love  to  them  ;  and  having,  by  his  atone- 
ment, covered  all  their  sins  from  the  eye  of  aveng- 
ing justice,  he  brings  them  into  open  acceptance 
with  the  King  eternal,  immortal  and  invisible;  who, 

y  Gen.  xlv.  16.     z  Luke  xv.  24.     a  Acts  viii.  8.  b  Gen.  xlv.  15, 

c  Ibid.  ver.   1C.    d  Ib.  ver.  17—34. 

I 

64 


482  JOSKP1I    A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST.       [sER.  XIV 

thereupon,  shows  them  his  covenant" — lets  them  know 
their  interest  in  his  great  and  precious  promises,  by 
which  they  are  assured  of  all  needful  good,  for  time 
and  eternityf — and  favors  them  with  his  gracious 
presence,  arid  the  tokens  of  his  loving-kindness  :  If 
any  man  love  me,  saith  Christ,  he  will  keep  my  words ; 
and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  un- 
to him  and  make  our  abode  with  him.  John  xiv. 
23.  Truly,  brethren,  our  fellowship  is  with  the 
Father,  and  with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  1  John  i.  3. 

REFLECTIONS. 

1.  Were  all  the  family  of  Joseph  gathered  to  him 
in  Egypt  ?  So  all  the  family  of  Christ  shall  be  gather- 
ed to  him  in  this  world.     "It  is  written  in  the  pro- 
phets," saith  he,  And  they  shall  be  all  taught  of  God ; 
that  is,  to  know  their  lost  condition  and  the  only 
way  of  salvation.     Every  man  therefore,  adds  he, 
that  hath  heard,  and  hath  learned  of  the  Father  ^ 
cometh  unto  me.     John  vi.  45. 

2.  By  the  favor  and  influence  of  Joseph,  his  fami- 
ly, though  in  Egypt,  were  distinguished  there. — 
They  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  and  near  to  Jo- 
sephs    Now  Goshen,  as  it  abounded  with  water  and 
pasture,  was  the  best  of  the  land  ;h  and  therefore  a 
fit  emblem  of  a  state  of  grace,  in   which  believers 
have  access  to  the  rills  and  fountains  of  living  water, 
and  feed  in  the  green  pastures  of  divine  promises 
and  ordinances.    But  the  best  of  all  is  their  privilege 
of  being  near  to  JESUS,  their  spiritual  Joseph:  for 
they  are  a  people  near  unto  him.1     The  lines,  of  a 
truth,  are  fallen  unto  us  in  pleasant  places ;  yea,  we 
have  a  goodly  heritage.    Psal.  xvi.  6. 

«  Psal.  xxv.  14.     f  2  Pet.  i.  4.    2.  Cor.  i.  20.  Rom.  viii.  32. 
e  Gen.  xlv.  10.     L  Ibid,  xlvii.  6.     l  Psal.  cxlviii.  14. 


SER.  XIV.]       JOSEPH    A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST.  483 

3.  the   family  of  Joseph,  though   they  dwelt  in 
Egypt,  were  not  Egyptians,  but  strangers  there. 
So  the  saints,  though  in  the  world,  are  not  of  the 
world,  but  strangers  and  pilgrims  here.     Heb.  xi. 
13.  Hence, 

4.  As  Joseph,  before  his  death,  assured  his  bre- 
thren (meaning  all  Israel)  that  God  would  certainly 
visit  them,  and  bring  them  out  of  that  land  into  the 
land  of  promise,k  so  Christ,  before  his  crucifixion, 
let  his  disciples  know,  that  God  had  provided  for 
them  a  better  home  than  this  world,  and  a  richer  in- 
heritance than  the  earthly  Canaan :  Fear  not,  said 
he,  little  flock,  for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure 
to  give  you  the  kingdom.     Luke  xii.  32. 

5.  Joseph,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  charged  his 
brethren  to  carry  up  his  bones  with  them.1     These 
were  to  accompany  them,  through  all  their  journey 
toward  the  holy  land.      And  so  the  everlasting  gos- 
pel, the  doctrine  of  Him  who  is  raised  from  the 
dead,  will  accompany  the  church  in  all  her  genera- 
tions, and  during  every  stage  of  her  heaven-ward 
journey :      My   words    which  I  have  put  in    thy 
mouth  shall  not  depart  out  of  thy  mouth,  nor  out  of 
the  mouth  of  thy  seed,  nor  out  of  the  mouth  of 
thy  seed's  seed,  saith  the  LoRD,/rom  henceforth  and 
for  ever.     Is.  lix.  21.     And,  as  the  Israelites,  with 

the  bones  of  Joseph,  entered  Canaan,  the  saints, 
with  the  risen  Jesus,  shall  enter  the  "  better  coun- 
try." For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from 
Heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  Arch- 
angel, and  with  the  trump  of  God:  and  the  dead 
in  Christ  shall  rise  first,  that  is,  before  the  living 

k  Gen.  1.24.    >  Ibid.  ver.  25. 


484  JOSEPH    A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST.       [SER.  XIV. 

saints  shall  be  changed :  Then  ice  ichich  are  alive 
and  remain,  (being  suddenly  changed,)  shall  be 
caught  up  together  icith  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet 
the  Lord  in  the  air :  and  so,  (having  entered  hea- 
ven with  him,)  shall  we  ever  le  with  the  Lord™ — 
Amen.  Even  so,  come,  LORD  JESUS. 

w  1  Thess.  iv.  16,  17-    Comp.  ICor.  xv.  51—57 


SERMON    XV. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JOSEPH,   CONTINUED, 


JOSEPH'S  LAND  A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST'S  CHURCH.* 

Deut.  xxxiii.  13 — 17. — And  of  Joseph  he  said.  Blessed  of  the  Lord 
be  his  land,  for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew,  and 
for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath.  And  for  the  precious  fruits 
brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for  the  precious  things  put  forth 
by  the  moon.  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains^ 
and  for  the  precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills.  And  for  the  pre- 
cious things  of  the  earth  and  fulness  thereof'  and  for  the  good- 
will of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush.  Let  the  blessing  come  upon 
the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon  the  top  of  the  head  of  him  that 
was  separated  from  his  brethren.  His  glory  is  like  the  firstling 
of  his  bullock,  and  his  horns  are  like  the  horns  of  unicorns  ;  with 
them  he  shall  push  the  people  together  to  the  ends  of  the  earth: 
and  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of  Ephraim,  and  they  are 
the  thousands  of  Manasseh. 


DAVID,  addressing  the  Lord,  said,  Open  thoumine 
eyes  that  I  may  behold  wonderous  things  out  of  thy 
law!"  With  such  things  our  text  abounds.  And,  O 
that  the  Lord  would  open  the  eyes  of  our  under- 
standing that  we  might  understand  them  ! 

That  Joseph,  in  many  respects,  was  a  personal 
type  of  Christ,  you  have  heard  in  the  preceding  dis- 
course ;  and  if  so,  it  must  follow,  by  consequence, 
that  his  portion  was  mystically  designed  to  set  forth 

a  Psal.  cxix.  18. 

65 


486  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SKR.  xv. 

the  portion  of  his  great  antitype.     This  will  appear, 
when,  concerning  Joseph's  land,  we  consider, 

FIRST,  The  manner  of  its  assignment.  Joseph  re- 
ceived his  land  by  lot?  and  therefore  by  divine  ap- 
propriation; for  the  whole  disposing  of  the  lot  is  of 
the  Lord.c  And  in  like  manner,  Christ  received  his 
portion,  the  church :  The  Lord's  portion  is  his  peo- 
ple ;  Jacob  is  the  lot  of  his  inheritance*  For, 
though  the  words  just  referred  to,  literally  under- 
stood, respect  national  Israel,  yet  that  Israel  as  be- 
ing an  object  of  God's  providential  love  and  choice,0 
and  as  being  by  him  committed  to  the  safe-keeping 
and  guidance  of  the  Angel  of  the  covenant,  in  whom 
his  "name,'7  his  nature  dwells,*  was  eminently  a  type 
of  spiritual  Israel,  whom  he  loves  with  an  everlast- 
ing love,  and  whom  he  gave  to  Christ,  not  only  as 
the  people  of  his  charge,  but  as  the  lot  of  his  in- 
heritance. Accordingly,  Christ,  when  speaking  to 
the  Father  concerning  them,  says,  Thine  they  were 
and  thou  gavest  them  me.  Yet,  that  none  might  sup- 
pose that  the  Father  had  thereby  relinquished  his 
own  interest  in  them,  Christ  farther  says  to  him, 
all  mine  are  thine,  and  thine  are  mine;  and  I  am 
glorified  in  them  ;f  that  is,  in  the  equity  of  their  re- 
demption and  the  perfection  of  their  salvation  ;  he 
having  redeemed  them  from  all  iniquity  f  arid  they 
being  saved  in  him  with  an  everlasting  salvation* 

SECONDLY,  The  succession  of  its  inhabitants.  Jo- 
eph's  land  was  inhabited  by  his  natural  descerid- 
mts,  in  their  successive  generations  ;'  and  the  church, 
he  land  of  Christ,  was  manifestly  designed  for  the 

bJosh.  xvi.  1.     cProv.  xvi.  33.     dDeut.  xxxii.  9.     e  Ibid.  vii. 
),  7.     *Exo.  xxiii.  20—23.  See  Ser.  iv.  p.  143,  &c.     f  John  xvii. 
J.  10.     &  Titus  ii.  14.     Ms.  xlv.   17.     *  Josh.  xvi.  4. 


SER.  xv.]      A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST'S  CHURCH.  '         487 

earthly  residence  of  his  spiritual  posterity,  from  ge- 
neration to  generation.  And  it  is  only  as  sinners 
receive  regenerating  grace  from  Christ  and  become 
believers  in  him,  that  they  are  qualified  to  profess 
his  name,  and  to  unite  with  his  visible  family,  which 
is  the  household  of  faith*  "This  is  the  heritage 
of  the  servants  of  the  LORD,  and  their  righteous- 
ness is  of  me  saith  the  LORD."  Is.  liv.  17.  Thus 
Christ,  by  communicating  grace  to  his  redeemed, 
perpetuates  a  seed  to  serve  him  ;  and  it  shall  be  ac- 
counted to  the  Lord  for  a  generation.  Psal.  xxii.  30. 

THIRDLY,  The  progress  and  means  of  its  actual 
possession.  The  inheritance  which  God,  in  his 
purpose,  had  assigned  to  Joseph  and  his  posterity 
was  very  large,  as  appears  from  the  inspired  pre- 
diction of  Jacob ;  see  Gen.  xlix.  22 — 26.  Yet  the 
children  of  Joseph,  for  a  time,  possessed  but  a  small 
share  of  the  assignment — only  one  lot.  So,  although 
God,  in  his  eternal  counsel  and  by  covenant- grant, 
had  assigned  to  Christ  and  his  church,  an  interest 
in  all  nations,  their  visible  interest,  nevertheless,  for 
a  time,  was  only  in  one  nation,  the  Jewish,  and  in- 
cluded but  a  few  of  them — a  little  flock. 

The  children  of  Joseph,  thus  limited  in  their  pos- 
sessions, and  encouraged  by  the  predictions  of  Ja- 
cob and  Moses,  and  especially  by  the  divine  favor 
already  experienced,  desired  enlargement  and 
sought  for  it.  They  spake  unto  Joshua,  saying, 
"Why  hast  thpu  given  me  but  one  lot  and  one  por- 
tion to  inherit,  seeing  I  am  a  great  people,  forasmuch 
as  the  Lord  hath  blessed  me  hitherto."1  Thus  the 

kGal.  vi.10.  Acts  ii.  37—41.  viii.  12.  37,  38.  xvi.  31— 40. 
1  Josh.  xvii.  14. 


488  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

chureh,  though  small  for  a  while,  became  "  a  great 
people,"  even  among  the  Jews ;  three  thousand  at 
once,  were  added  to  her,  on  the  day  of  pentecost,111 
and  soon  after,  perhaps  jive  thousand  more,  or,  at 
least,  two  thousand,  augmenting  the  number  of  them 
that  believed  to  about  Jive  thousand  ;n  nay,  u  The 
word  of  God  increased,  and  the  number  of  the  dis- 
ciples multiplied  in  Jerusalem  greatly."0  At  this, 
the  carnal  Jews  were  filled  with  envy,  contradiction 
and  blasphemy ;  wherefore  the  apostles,  seeing  that 
the  church  in  Judea  was  straitened  for  room,  oppress- 
ed with  persecution,  and  sighing  for  enlargement — 
and  understanding  by  prophecy,  that  the  time  was 
come  for  her  extension  among  the  nations,  said,  Lo, 
we  turn  to  the  gentiles;  for  so  hath  the  Lord  com- 
manded us,p*  saying,  I  have  set  thee  (Christ)  to  be  a 
light  of  the  gentiles,  that  thou  shouldst  be  for  salva- 
tion unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.q 

The  children  of  Joseph,  though  not  denied  their 
request,  were  informed  that  the  actual  possession  of 
territory  was  only  to  be  acquired  by  labor  and  war- 
fare. Joshua  answered  them, "  If  thou  be,"  or  where- 
as thou  art  "a  great  people,  get  thee  up  to  the 
wood-country,  and  cut  down  for  thyself  there,  in  the 
land  of  the  Perizzites,  and  of  the  giants"  also,  "  if 
mount  Ephraim  be  too  narrow  for  thee."r  Fn  like 
manner,  though  the  request  of  the  church  for  the 
calling  of  the  nations  is  not,  denied,  her  divine 
Joshua,  by  his  spirit  in  the  word,  hath  abundantly 
informed  her,  that  she  must  do  more  than  merely  to 
desire  it  or  even  formally  to  pray  for  it — that  it  is 
to  be  obtained  through  the  instrumentality  of  her 

m  Acts  ii.  41.     n  Ibid.  iv.  4.     °  Ibid.  vi.  7.    P  Is.  xlix.  6.    9  Acts 
xiii.  46, 47.     r  Josh.  xvii.  15. 


SER.  XV.]       A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  489 

members  and  ministers,  who  must  "spend  and  be 
spent"  in  the  achievement.8  She  must,  at  her  ex- 
pense, send  out  missionaries,  such  as  the  Lord  shall 
qualify  and  dispose  for  the  work,  and  that,  not  only 
among  the  destitute  in  civilized  countries,  but  also 
into  the  heathen  world,  comparable  to  the  wood- 
country  of  the  Perizzites  and  giants.  Thus  she 
must  cut  down  and  clear  for  herself.  And  as  an  ex- 
ample for  the  imitation  and  encouragement  of 
preachers  in  all  generations,  the  apostles  and  other 
ministers  of  Christ,  commissioned  and  encouraged 
by  him,  extended  their  labors  among  the  gentiles, 
and  "the  hand  of  the  Lord  being  with  them,  a  great 
number  believed  and  turned  unto  the  Lord."1  Such 
a  missionary,  in  an  eminent  degree,  was  the  apostle 
Paul,  who  could  say,  "  So  have  I  strived  to  preach 
the  gospel,  not  where  Christ  was  named,  lest  I 
should  build  upon  another  man's  foundation."" — 
Thus  acting,  the  church  obeys  the  divine  injunc- 
tion, "  Enlarge  the  place  of  thy  tent,  and  let  them, 
(her  ministers)  stretch  forth  the  curtains  of  thine 
habitations ;  spare  riot,  lengthen  thy  cords,  and 
strengthen  thy  stakes,"  and  enjoys  the  fulfilment  of 
the  promise  annexed  to  so  doing :  "  For  thou  shalt 
break  forth  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left ;  and 
thy  seed  shall  inherit  the  gentiles  and  make  the 
desolate  cities  to  be  inhabited."  Is.  liv.  2,  3. 

Nor  were  the  children  of  Joseph  satisfied  with 
permission  to  range  and  subdue  the  wood-country 
only;  but  had  an  eye  to  the  valleys  also;  though 
they  doubted  the  practicability  of  conquering  their 

«  Psal.  Ixxii.  15—19.  Is.  ii.  2,  3.  Ixii.  1—7.  2  Cor.  xii.  15 
*  Acts  xi.  21.  u  Rom.  xv.  20. 


490  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

inhabitants.  They  said,  "The  hill,"  (not  mount 
Ephraim  merely,  but  all  the  mountainous  region 
signified  by  the  wood-country)  "  is  not  sufficient 
for  us;  and  all  the  Canaanites  that  dwell  in  the 
land  of  the  valley,"  (alas  for  us!)  "have  chariots 
of  iron,*  both  they  who  are  of  Beth-.shean  and  her 
towns,  and  they  who  are  of  the  valley  of  Jazreel.''w 
Beth-shean  (compounded  of  mbeth  a  house,  and 
either  \w  sheen  a  tooth,  or  pty  shanan,  to  whet,  to 
sharpen,  as  teeth  are  sharpened,  to  bite,  or  edged 
tools,  to  cut)  was  a  fit  type  of  the  house,  or  genera- 
tion of  persecutors — "a  generation  whose  teeth  are 
as  swords,  and  their  jaw- teeth  as  knives  to  devour," 
&c.-*-yea,  "whose  teeth,"  to  imply  the  variety  of 
their  destructive  measures  and  instruments,  "  are 
spears  and  arrows,  and  their  tongue  a  sharp  sword;" 
and  "  who,"  that  they  may  lie  and  slander  the  more 
effectually,  "whet  their  tongue  like  a  sword,  and 
bend  their  bows  to  shoot  their  arrows,  even  bitter 
words,"  &c.x  And  whereas,  in  gospel-times,  the 
greatest  persecutors  of  the  church  have  been  found 
under  the  Christian  name,  it  is  no  wild  conceit,  to 
consider  papal  Rome  and  her  dependencies,  as  the 
Beth-shean  and  her  towns,  of  the  present  dispensa- 
tion. 

*  Not  chariots  made  of  iron,  but  chariots  armed  with  it ;  that  is, 
S^tfavTjtpo^a,  drepanephora,  bearing  hooks,  sickles  or  scythes,  pro- 
jecting from  their  axles  on  each  side ;  see  2  Mace.  xiii.  2 ;  and 
which,  being  furiously  driven  through  an  enemy's  battalions, 
produced  general  confusion,  and  mowed  down  the  infantry  like 
grass.  Such,  it  is  presumed,  were  the  war-chariots  of  Pharaoh, 
Exo.  xiv.  7 — of  the  Philistines;  1  Sam.  xiii.  5.  and  of  the  Syrians  ; 
2  Sam.  viii.  4 :  and  such,  no  doubt,  were  those  of  the  Canaan- 
ites. See  Josh,  xi.  4.  and  Judg.  i.  19  and  iv.  3. 

w  Josh.  xvii.  16.     *  Prov.  xxx.  14.  Psal.  Ivii.  4,  and  Ixiv.  3.  &c. 


SER.  XV.]       A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S  CHURCH.  491 

Jezrecl,  from  yni  zeruang,  seed  or  sowing,  and  Sx 
El,  God,  signifies  the  seed  or  sowing  of  God:  or, 
otherwise,  the  dispersed  of  God.  And,  in  either 
sense,  the  appellation  is  appropriate  to  the  Jews  — 
nay,  like  Jeskurun*  JEZREEL  is  but  another  name  for 
Israel  ;z  who,  by  national  adoption  and  federal  privi- 
leges, were  a  peculiar  seed  unto  God  ;a  and  whom, 
nevertheless,  for  their  disbelief  and  rejection  of  the 
Messiah,  he  has  expelled  from  Canaan,  and  dispers- 
ed among  all  nations,  according  to  prophecy.  See 
Is.  vi.  11,  12;  and  Jer.  xxiv.  9. 

Now,  both  the  papists  and  the  Jews  have  their 
chariots  of  iron  —  their  confidences  and  prejudices, 
strong  as  chariots  of  war,  and,  like  them,  both  of- 
fensive and  defensive  —  serving  at  once  to  animate 
their  unhallowed  zeal,  and  to  confirm  their  unautho- 
rized hope.  The  papists,  trusting  in  popish  infalli- 
bility, and  the  Jews,  relying  on  carnal  descent  from 
Abraham,  feel  alike  secure  of  divine  favor,  and  are 
alike  unmoved  by  evangelical  attack.  Judging,  then, 
according  to  carnal  reason,  we  are  tempted  to  say, 
"  How  little  encouragement  have  the  church  and 
her  ministers,  to  take  any  .jnpasures  for  their  healing 
and  conversion  !" 

But,  let  us  hear  the  animating  words  of  Joshua, 
who,  addressing  the  house  of  Joseph,  said,  "  Thou 
art  a  great  people  and  hast  great  power;  thou 
shalt  not  have  one  lot  only  :  but  the  mountain  shall 
be  thine  ;  for  it  is  a  wood,  and  thou  shalt  cut  it 
down:  and  the  outgoings  of  it,"  meaning  its  pro- 
ductions and  the  ways  of  access  to  it,  "  shall  be 


t.  xxxii.  16.     z  Hosea  i.  4.  ii.  22.     a  Exo.  iv.  22,  Deut. 
xiv.  i.  2. 


492  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

thine,"  the  former  as  a  revenue  and  the  latter  as  an 
accommodation ;  "  for  thou  shah  dri\7e  out  the  Ca- 
naanites,  though  they  have  iron  chariots  and  though 
they  be  strong."5 

Thus  the  gospel  church,  though  small  at  her  be- 
ginning, is  already,  by  the  conquests  of  grace  be- 
come "  a  great  people,"  and,  having  the  Lord  of 
hosts  on  her  side,  and  the  God  of  Jacob  for  her 
refuge,  she  has  "  great  power ;".  and  as  Joshua  en- 
couraged the  exertions  of  the  house  of  Joseph,  much 
more  does  JESUS  encourage  those  of  HIS  OWN  HOUSE 
with  assurances  of  additional  victories  and  succes- 
sive acquisitions.  For  him,  as  for  Joshua,  "There 
remains  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed  ;c  and 
by  his  Spirit  in  the  prophets,  he  is,  in  effect,  saying 
to  his  church,  The  mountain,  the  gentile  world, 
shall  be  thine ;  for,  addressing  her,  he  saith,  "  The 
gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the 
brightness  of  thy  rising.  Lift  up  thine  eyes  round 
about,  and  see  ;  all  they  gather  themselves  together, 
they  come  to  thee ;  thy  sons  shall  come  from  far, 
and  thy  daughters  shall  be  nursed  by  thy  side — the 
abundance  of  the  seas  shall  be  converted  unto  thee, 
the  forces  of  the  gentiles  shall  come  unto  thee."d 

Nevertheless,  the  church,  like  the  house  of  Jo- 
seph, must  obtain  her  promised  inheritance  among 
the  heathen  through  the  use  of  appointed  means; 
"for  it  is  a  wood,"  and  she  must  send  laborers, 
prepared  of  the  Lord,  to  "  cat  it  down."  Regenera- 
tion, indeed,  is  exclusively  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  ;e  yet  ordinarily,  at  least,  He  opens  the  eyes 

*  Josh.  xvii.  17,  18.    c  Ibid.  xiii.  1,     d  Is.  Ix.  3,  4.  8.     e  Rom. 
ii.  29.   Eph.  i.  17— 20.  ii.  1.  4,  5,  10.  Comp.  John  vi.  63. 


SER.  XV.]      A  TYPE  OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  493 

of  sinners,  and  turns  them  from  darkness  to  light, 
and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God,  by  the  in- 
strumentality of  gospel-ministers.  See  Acts  xi. 
21.  xxvi.  18.  And  it  is  only  as  moved  by  the  same 
Spirit,  that  the  church  obeys  the  injunction  of  Christ, 
Pray  ye  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  would  send 
forth  laborers?  and  complies  with  the  request  of 
her  missionaries,  who,  from  heathen  as  well  as  civil- 
ized lands,  and  in  apostolic  language,  are  saying 
to  her,  pray  for  us,  that  the  word  of  the  Lord 
may  have  free  course,  and  be  glorified,  in  the  con- 
version of  sinners,  even  as  it  is  with  you.g  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  God :  I  will  yet  for  this  be  inquired  of 
by  the  house,  of  Israel,  to  do  it  for  them  ;  I  will  in- 
crease them  with  men  like  a  flock."h 

Herein  the  church  of  Christ,  like  the  house  of 
Joseph,  shall  "have  the  outgoings  of  the  mountain,'' 
accessions  of  converts  from  the  heathen  world,  and 
freedom  of  intercourse  with  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  With  her  increase  of  numbers,  her  means 
also  shall  be  still  increased,  preparatory  to  further 
expenditures  in  the  Redeemer's  cause :  "  The  kings 
of  Tarshish  and  of  the  isles  shall  bring  presents, 
the  kings  of  Sheba  and  Seba  shall  offer  gifts."1 
"  Thy  gates,"  saith  Christ  to  her,  "  shall  be  open 
continually;  they  shall  not  be  shut  day  nor  night; 
that  men  may  bring  unto  thee  the  forces  of  the  gen- 
tiles," their  wealth,  as  the  word  implies,  as  well  as 
converts  from  among  them,  "  and  that  their  kings," 
subdued  .and  drawn  by  grace,  "may  be  brought,'7* 
And  hence  it  is  added,  "  Thou  shalt  also  suck  the 

fMatt.  ix.  38.  Luke  x.  2.  e^Thess,  iii.  1.  h  Ezek.  xxxvf 
37.  *  Psal.  Ixxii.  10. 

66 


494  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

milk  of  the  gentiles,  and  shalt  suck  the  breast  of 
kings  ;  and  thou  shalt  know  that  I  the  Lord  am 
thy  Saviour  and  thy  Redeemer,  the  mighty  one  of 
Jacob."  Is.  Ix.  11.  16. 

Nor  is  even  papal  Rome,  the  same  with  mystical 
Babylon,  to  be  regarded  as  utterly  invincible.  As  an 
enemy  to  the  church,  not  all  her  iron  chariots  of 
popish  superstition  and  satanic  warfare,  nor  all  her 
confederates,  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  can  preserve 
her  for  a  moment  beyond  the  hour  of  her  decreed 
and  predicted  ruin ;  "  for  strong  is  the  Lord  God 
that  judgeth  her.''  Rev.  xviii.  8.  Neither  is  she, 
to  us,  altogether  a  hopeless  object ;  for  though,  as 
typified  in  literal  Babylon,k  she  is  doomed  to  utter 
destruction;1  the  sentence,  nevertheless,  cannot  be 
executed,  till  the  elect  of  God,  remaining  within  her 
walls,  shall  hear  his  voice,  saying,  "  Come  out  of  her 
my  people,"  &c.  Rev.  xviii.  4.  For  this,  let  Zion 
hope  arid  pray. 

And  as  for  Jczrccl,  or  national  Israel,  though  for  her 
breach  of  the  sinaic  covenant  and  rejection  of  the 
true  Messiah,  God  hath  long  forsaken  her  and  widely 
dispersed  her ;  yet,  according  to  his  covenant  of 
grace,  before  confirmed  in  Christ,  and  made  known 
to  her  fathers,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  he  re- 
members her  for  good,  and  will  gather  her  in 
mercy :  "  I  will  take  you,"  saith  he  to  the  scattered 
Jews,  "from  among  the  heathen,  and  gather  you 
out  of  all  countries,  and  will  bring  you  into  your  own 
land.  THEN"  (and  not  till  THEN)  "will  I  sprinkle 
clean  water  upon  you,"  meaning  his  pure  gospel, 
especially  the  doctrine  of  pardon  and  justification 

k  Jer.  li.  63,  64.     »  Rev.  xviii.  21. 


SER.  XV.]       A    TYPE  OF  CHRIST^  CHURCH.  495 

through  the  atoning  blood  and  perfect  righteousness 
of  Christ,  explained  and  applied  to  them  by  his 
Spirit's  influence ;  "And  ye  shall  be  clean  :  from  all 
your  filthiness,  and  from  all  your  idols,  will  I  cleanse 
you.  A  new  heart  also  will  I  give  you,  and  a  new 
spirit  will!  put  within  you;  and  I  will  take  away 
the  stony  heart  out  of  your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you 
an  heart  of  flesh.  And  I  will  put  my  Spirit  within 
you,  and  cause  you  to  walk  in  my  statutes,  and  ye 
shall  keep  my  judgments,  and  do  them.  And  ye 
shall  dwell  in  the  land  that  I  gave  to  your  fathers; 
and,"  (the  lo-ami  being  removed,)  "ye  shall  be 
my  people  and  I  will  be  your  God."  See  Ezek. 
xxxvi.  24 — 28.  and  Hosea  i.  9. 

The  Jews,  therefore,  though  blindly  trusting  in 
privileges  and  ceremonies,  long  abolished,  and 
though  wickedly  armed  with  traditions  and  preju- 
dices, strong  as  iron,  against  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  are 
decidedly  objects  of  Christian  hope  and  ministerial 
address,  and  authorized  subjects  of  our  fiducial  and 
persevering  supplications  to  God.  The  valley  of 
Jezreel,  it  is  true,  has  long  been  "  a  valley  full  of 
bones" — yea,  of  bones  very  dry ;  yet  even  these 
are  not  beyond  the  power  of  Him  who  quickeneth 
the  dead. — Is  any  thing  too  hard  for  the  Lord? 
See  Ezek.  xxxvii.  1 — 14.* 

*  That  the  gathering  of  the  Jews,  promised  in  Ezek.  xxxvitb, 
does  not  simply  denote  their  gathering  from  the  Babylonish  cap- 
tivity, but  ultimately  from  their  present  dispersion  also,  is  evi- 
dent by  some  things  said  of  their  land  and  of  them,  which  were 
not  verified  at  their  return  from  Babylon.  See  ver.  14,  15.  29, 
30.  And  much  less  can  their  resurrection,  described  in  Chap, 
xxxviith,  be  restricted  to  their  recovery  from  captivity,  but  re- 
mains to  be  realized  in  their  conversion  in  the  latter  day ;  when 


496  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

Chiefly,  however,  the  land  of  Joseph  was  a  type  of 
the  church  of  Christ, 

FOURTHLY,  In  the  natural  and  providential  bless- 
ings by  which  it  was  distinguished  :  Of  Joseph, 
Moses  said,  Blessed  of  the  Lord  be  his  land,  &c. 

Compared  with  the  lands  round  about  it,  the  land 
of  Joseph  was  remarkable  for  its  richness.  It  in- 
cluded Gilead  and  Bashan,  inherited  by  Manas- 
seh  ;m  and  the  rich  country  of  Samaria,  which,  with 
her  mountains,11  her  fields0 — and  her  metropolis,15  fell 
to  the  lot  of  Ephraim.*  Thus  the  church  of  Christ, 
consisting  of  those  called  out  of  the  world  that  lieth 
in  wickedness,  is  distinguished  from  all  other  por- 
tions of  mankind,  by  the  riches  of  divine  grace. 
Hence  the  diversity  of  soil,  noticed  by  our  Lord  in 
the  parable  of  the  sower.  Of  the  unregerierate,  he 
likened  some  to  the  way-side,  some  to  stony  places, 
and  some  to  land  covered  with  thorns;  but  the  rege- 
nerate he  likened  to  good  ground,  that  is,  to  ground 
duly  ploughed  and  manured  ;  for,  as  such  ground 
is  in  a  good  state  of  preparation  to  receive  the  seed 
of  the  sower,  and  to  bring  forth  a  crop  for  the  own- 
er ;  so  the  regenerate,  having  the  fallow  ground  of 
their  hearts  broken  up,  and  the  fertilizing  princi- 
ple of  grace  imparted,  are  prepared  to  receive  the 
seed  of  the  word  and  to  bring  forth  fruit,  more  or 
less,  unto  God.r 

The  land  of  Joseph   was   distinguished   by   its 

'the  ten  tribes  and  the  two  shall  be  re-united,  and  David,  the  true 
Messiah,  shall  be  king  over  them.  See  ver.  15 — 28.  Comp. 
Hosea  iii.  5.  and  Rom.  xi.  25,  26. 

m  Josh.  xvii.  1.     n  Amos  iii.  9.     °  Obad.    ver.  19.     P  Is.  vii.  9. 
"1  Ibid.  ix.  9.     r  Matt.  xiii.  5—8.  and  from  18—23.  Comp.  1  Cor. 

Y.7. 


SER.  XV.]       A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S  CHURCH.  497 

advantages  in  water:  Blessed  of  the  Lord  be  his 
land,  for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  by  which 
are  meant  plentiful  and  -seasonable  rains  and  dews  ; 
for  although  "the  dew"  only  is  mentioned,  rain 
is  unquestionably  implied :  and  which  are  both 
precious  things,  so  precious,  so  valuable,  and  so 
needful,  that,  without  them,  no  land  can  be  fertile, 
no  crop  can  flourish — and  they  are  not  only  precious 
things  but  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  because 
they  come  from  above,  and  are  the  gifts  of  God,  by 
whom  they  are  generated  and  caused  to  descend." 
Mystically  and  typically,  however,  we  are  hereby 
led  to  contemplate  the  spiritual  blessings  which 
come  upon  the  church,  the  land  of  our  spiritual  Jo- 
seph. Of  these,  and  especially  of  the  gospel  and 
the  attendant  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  rains 
and  dews  are  scriptural  emblems ;  My  doctrine, 
said  Christ,  (speaking  by  his  Spirit  in  Moses,) 
shall  drop  as  the  rain,  my  speech  shall  distil 
as  the  dew ;  as  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  herb, 
and  as  the  showers  upon  the  grass.*  Like  the 
rain,  and  snow,  and  dew,  both  the  gospel  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  are  the  free  gifts  of  God,  and  come  by 
his  appointment,  as  to  time,  and  place,  and  degree  ; 
and,  like  them,  the  word  of  his  grace,  whenever  and 
wherever  sent,  attended  by  the  influence  of  his  Spi- 
rit, must^accomplish  the  end  he  designs,  whether  it 
be  to  call,  to  comfort,  to  edify  or  to  reprove.  "  For," 
saith  he,  "  as  the  rain  cometh  down,  and  the  snow 
from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth 
the  earth,  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  that  it 
may  give  seed  to  the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater ;  so 

8  Job.  xxxviii.  28.     *  Deut.  xxxii.  2. 


493  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth  : 
it  shall  not  return  unto  me  void  ;  but  it  shall  accom- 
plish that  which  I  please,  and  it  shall  prosper  in  the 
thing  whereto  I  sent  it.''  Is.  Iv.  10,  11. 

Nor  was  "the  land  of  Joseph"  favored  merely 
with  rains  and  dews,  but  also  with  springs  and 
fountains.  Wherefore  it  is  added,  and  for  the  deep 
that  coucheth  beneath  ;  from  which  springs  and  foun- 
tains break  out  and  flow,  and  which,  as  welfas  rain 
and  dew,  are  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  being  the 
gifts  of  God,  "  who  rnaketh  the  fountains  of  waters. 
Rev.  xiv.  7.  Neither  are  these  without  their  mysti- 
cal signification.  They  are  fit  emblems  of  the  ema- 
nations, the  breakings  forth  of  divine  goodness, 
in  grace  and  in  providence,  all  preceding  from 
the  unseen  deep  of  God's  everlasting  love  to  his 
people;  and  which  spring  up  and  flow  according  to 
the  arrangements  of  his  eternal  counsel,  and  the 
provisions  of  his  " covenant  ordered  in  all  things 
and  sure."  See  Eph.  i.  11.  and  2.  Sam.  xxiii.  5. — 
They  are  also  appropriate  emblems  of  the  doctrines 
of  grace,  and  of  the  "  great  and  gracious  promises" 
of  God,  which,  like  the  former,  all  rise  from  the  in- 
explorable  deep  of  that  favor,  that  unchanging  love 
and  good-will,  which  he  bears  to  his  people.  See 
Psal.  cvi.  4. 

Now,  according  to  these  covenanted  provisions, 
CHRIST,  "  in  whom  it  hath  pleased  the  Father  they 
should  all  dwell,"  becomes  to  the  numerous  branch- 
es of  his  church,  and  to  the  souls  of  all  believers  in- 
dividually, as  "  a  Fountain  of  gardens,  a  Well  of 
waters,  and  streams  from  Lebanon.  Cant.  iv.  15. 
Comp.  Is.  Iviii.  11. 

The  preaching  of  the  gospel,  the  administration 


SEU.  XV.]       A     TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  499 

of  its  ordinances,  and  the  special  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  are,  like  rain  and  dew,  but  occasionally 
granted  ;  and  like  them,  are,  in  many  instances, 
long  suspended:  but  the  doctrines  of  grace,  exhibit- 
ing the  method  of  salvation,  and  the  promises  of 
God,  giving  assurance  of  its  completion  in  all  the 
heirs,  as  they  are  contained  in  the  written  word,  are, 
like  springs  and  fountains,  stationary  blessings. 
To  these  we  may  come,  even  when  we  have  no  pub- 
lic teachers,  nor  public  ordinances,  and,  if  favored 
with  the  bucket  of  faith,  we  may  with  joy  draw 
water  out  of  these  wells  of  salvation.  Is.  xii.  3. 
To  procede. 

As  the  land  of  Joseph  was  distinguished  by  the 
richness  of  its  soil,  and  the  abundance  of  its  waters, 
so,  as  a  matter  of  course,  by  its  great  fertility.  JAR- 
CHI,  a  Jewish  Commentator,  who,  on  this  subjecf, 
had  access  to  the  best  means  of  information,  says, 
"  There  was  not  in  the  inheritance  of  the  tribes,  a 
land  so  full  of  all  good  things  as  4he  land  of  Jo- 
seph." Let  this  remind  us,  that  there  is  not,  upon 
earth,  a  land  so  full  of  all  good  things  as  the  land  of 
our  spiritual  Joseph,  the  church  of  Christ,  which,  be- 
ing stored  with  the  blessings  of  grace,  and  caused  to 
abound  in  practical  godliness,  is  declared  to  be  full 
of  goodness.  Rom.  xv.  14.  Inj  its  fertility,  the 
land  of  Joseph  was  remarkable, 

Fir  st9  For  the  precious  things  or  ought  forth  by 
the  sun;  which  lias  a  wonderful  influence  in  pro- 
ducing and  perfecting  most  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
for  the  good  of  mankind,  and  in  which  fruits  the 
land  of  Joseph  in  particular  abounded.  Much 
more  precious,  however,  are  the  fruits  brought  forth 
by  Christ,  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  for  his  favored 


500  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

land,  his  church  and  people ;  I  mean  the  blessed 
results  of  his  incarnation,  obedience,  and  death — 
his  resurrection,  ascension  and  intercession,  all 
which,  with  the  benefits  thereby  accruing  to  all  repre- 
sented in  Him,  are  in  accordance  with  his  mediatorial 
stipulations  in  the  everlasting  covenant.  Among 
these  benefits,  are, 

1.  Our  reconciliation  to  the  offended  justice  of 
God  :    We  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  his 
Son.     Rom.  v.  10. 

2.  Our  redemption  from  the  legal  penalty  incur- 
red by  sin*:   Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us.     Gal.  iii.  10* 

3.  The  regenerating  and  enlightening  grace  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  which  the  Father  sheds  abundantly, 
upon  his  elect,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour. 
Titus  iii.  5,  6.     Comp.  Heb.  ii.  11.  and  1  John  ii. 
20.  27. 

4.  The  knowledge  of  our  redemption  by  Christ^ 
through  the  remission  of  our  sins,   granted,   by  the 
Father,  for  his  sake  :  In  whom  we  have  redemption 
through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins.   CoL 
i.  14.     Eph.  i.  7.  and  iv.  32.  Comp.  Luke  i.  77. 

5.  Personal  and  irreversible  justification  in  the 
sight  of  God;  being  justified  freely  by  his  grace^ 
through  the  redemption   that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 
Rom.  iii.    24;    yea,  justified  from  all  things ;  Acts 
xiii.  39 ;  and  justified  by  Him,  from  whose  decision 
there  can  be  no  appeal.      See  Rom.  viii,  23,  24. 
Hence   the  church,  as  found  in  Christ,  is  clothed 
with  the  sun.     Rev.  xii.  1, 

6.  Peace  with  God — peace  procured  by  the  blood 
of  the  cross,  and  enjoyed  by  the  grace  of  faith.  Col. 
i.  20.  and  Rom.  v.  1.     Besides, 


SER.  XV.]       A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  501 

7.  All  our  supplies  come,,  in  like  manner,  by  this 
new  and  living  way  :  My  God  shall  supply  all  your 
need,  according  to  his  riches  in  glory,   BY  CHRIST 
JESUS.     Philip  iv.  19.     Nay, 

8.  Even  the  heavenly  inheritance,   though  not 
purchased  by  Christ,  is  bestowed  upon  us  through 
him  :   The  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life,  THROUGH  JE- 
SUS CHRIST  OUR  LORD.     Rom.  vi.  23.     Moreover, 

As  Christ,  the  Sun  of  righteousness,  has  brought 
forth  "  precious  fruits  for  his  people,  so  He  also 
brings  forth  "  precious  fruits  in  them.  Through 
Him,  as  Mediator,  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  He  hath 
received  without  measure?  is  given  to  his  redeemed 
in  measure,  implanting  graces  in  them,  correspond- 
ent to  those  which  adorn  his  own  human  soul :  Of 
his  fulness  have  all  we  received,  (who  have  passed 
from  death  unto  life,)  and  grace  for  grace.  John  i.  16. 
Hence  are  all  the  precious  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  such 
as  faith,  love,  patience,  meekness,  &c.,  which  spring 
from  their  respective  seeds,  or  principles,  implanted 
in  the  souls  of  the  regenerated  And  as  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  moistened  by  seasonable  rains  and  dews, 
are  brought  forth  and  caused  to  flourish  by  the 
kindly  and  vegetative  influence  of  the  natural  sun ; 
so  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  in  believers,  being  nourish- 
ed by  appropriate  supplies  of  grace,  are  brought 
forth  and  made  to  abound,  by  the  benign  and  ex- 
hilarating rays  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  too,  that,  as  the  "  land  of  Joseph," 
according  to  the  observation  of  a  Jewish  commen- 
tator before  named,  "  lay  open  to  the  sun ;"  so  the 
church  of  Christ,  the  land  of  our  spiritual  Joseph, 

u  John  iii.  34.     w  Gal.  v.  22,  23. 

67 


502  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

lies  specially  open  to  all  the  beamings  of  divine  fa- 
vor, shining  through  Him,  the  Sun  of  righteousness ; 
for  Christ  having  meritoriously  put  away  sin,  the  sin 
of  all  he  represented,  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself?  as 
they  are  regenerated  arid  enabled  to  believe  in  him, 
God  the  Father  blots  out,  as  a  thick  cloudy  their 
transgressions,  and,  as  a  cloud,  their  sins,y  arid  gives 
them  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  his  glory  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ.2  Thus  it  is,  that  believers  be- 
come filled  with  the  fruits  of  righteousness,  which 
are  by  Jesus  Christ,  unto  the  praise  of  God.  Philip, 
i.  11. 

As  the  land  of  Joseph  was  remarkable  for  the  pre- 
cious fruits  brought  forth  by  the  sun,  so  also, 

SECONDLY,  For  the  precious  things  put  forth  by  the 
moon ;  by  which,  according  to  this  version,  must  be 
meant  those  fruits  which,  being  digested  by  the  sun,, 
during  the  day,  are  advanced  andj  dilated  by  the 
cooling  and  moistening  influence  of  the  moon,  du- 
ring the  night. 

Thus  understood,  this  clause  of  the  text,  very  na- 
turally reminds  us  of  the  church,  as  likened  to  the 
moon,*  and  whose  members,  having  received  the 
principles  of  grace  from  Christ,  the  Sun,  are  instru- 
mental in  bringing  forth  correspondent  fruits,  by  a 
holy  and  useful  life  and  conversation.  These  fruits 
constitute  their  work  of  faith  and  labor  of  love,b  and 
are,  on  many  accounts,  precious  things.  See  Cant, 
iv.  13,  &c.  They  are  precious,  because  those  who 
exhibit  them  are  the  excellent  of  the  earth,c  and 
comparatively  scarce  among  merij— also  because  they 
are  variously  useful  in  the  church  and  in  the  world  ;e 

*  Heb.  ix.  26.  y  Is.  xliv.  22.  z  2  Cor.  iv.  6.  a  Cant.  vi.  10. 
*>  1  Thess.  i.  3.  c  Psal  xvi.  3.  d  Ibid.  xii.  1.  e  Gal/  yi.  10. 
Heb.  vi.  10.  xiii.  16, 


SER.  XV.]       A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  503 

but  chiefly  they  are  so,  because  they  serve  to  promote 
the  declarative  glory  of  God  :  Herein,  said  Christ 
to  his  disciples,  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear 
much  fruit.  John  xv.  8. 

This  improvement,  however,  of  the  clause  in  ques- 
tion, though  naturally  suggested  by  our  version — 
though  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  analogy  of  faith — 
though,  in  itself,  useful,  and  though  abundantly  sup- 
ported by  the  tenor  of  scripture,  is,  nevertheless,  in 
my  opinion,  not  the  true  one.  For, 

1.  It  does  not  correspond  to  the  scope  of  the  text, 
which  is  to  show,  literally,  the  abundance  of  tempo- 
ral blessings  which  God  would  bestow  on  the  pos- 
terity of  Joseph,  and  typically,  the  richer  abundance 
of  spiritual  blessings,  by  which  he  would  distinguish 
the  posterity  of  Christ.    And, 

2.  It  is  supported  by  a  translation  and  interpreta- 
tion of  the  passage,  which  assigns  to  the  moon  such 
an  influence  on  the  fruits  of  the  earth  as  is  very 
doubtful.     Pliny,  indeed,*  says,  that  at  the  increase 
of  the  moon  all  sorts  of  corn  grow  fuller  and  larger. 
Dclechamps\  restricts  the  moon's  influence,  in  this 
way,  to  melons  and  onions.  And  the  learned  Scheuch- 
zer%  rejects  the   opinion    altogether.      For  though 
he  admits,  that  many  things,  as  the  ebbing  and  flow- 
ing of  tides,  and  the  recurrence    of  epileptic   and 
convulsive  paroxisms,  depend  on  the  moon's  pressure 
upon  the  globe,  yet  he  denies  that  the  influence  of 
this   pressure    extends  to   plants   and  fruits;    and 
therefore,  adverting  to  this  text,  which  might  seem 
to  stand  in  his  way,  he  considered  it  as  having  re- 
spect only  to  monthly  fruits. 

*  Nat.  Hist.  1.  18.  c.  30.     t  In  his  Notes  on  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist. 
1.  2.  c.  41.     J  Physic.  Sacr.  vol.  3.  p.  437. 


504  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

The  question  regarding  the  moon's  influence,  I 
leave  with  naturalists ;  but  as  to  the  literal  meaning  of 
the  clause  under  consideration,  I  perfectly  agree 
with  the  writer  last  named,  and  that  for  obvious  rea- 
sons. With  the  Jews,  whose  months  were  lunar, 
a  moon  and  a  month  were  exactly  of  the  same  dura- 
tion ;  and  were  commonly  noted  by  the  same  word, 
to  wit,  HT  yarach.  In  our  text,  this  word  is  used  in 
its  plural  form,  DTIY  yeracheem ;  and  therefore, 
whether  it  mean  moons  or  months,  it  doubtless  de- 
signs a  succession  of  them.  Consequently,  by  the 
"  precious  things  put  forth  by  the  moon,"  must  be 
meant  things  put  forth  moon  by  moon,  or  month  by 
month,  that  is,  monthly,  or  every  month.  This  opin- 
ion is  supported  by  Onkelos,  whose  Chaldee  Para- 
phrase on  the  Pentateuch,  is  in  high  esteem  among 
the  Jews,  and  who,  on  the  clause  in  question,  says 
of  the  land  of  Joseph,  "It produced  precious  fruits 
at  the  beginning  of  every  month,'7  also  by  the  Tar- 
gum  of  Jonathan  and  that  of  Jerusalem,  which  say 
of  the  same  land,  "  It  yieldeth  ripe  fruit  at  the  be- 
ginning of  every  month."  LEVI,  too,  understood 
this  passage  in  the  same  way.* 

Hence,  among  the  Jews,  the  "  beginning  of  their 
months,"  were  also  called  their  new  moons,  and  by 
divine  appointment,  were  successively  solemnized 
by  the  offering  of  sacrifices  and  the  blowing  of  trum- 
pets/ 

These,  their  monthly  solemnities,  however,  as  well 
as  their  annual  feasts  and  their  weekly  sabbaths, 
God,  displeased  with  their  abuse  of  them,  and  to 
introduce  their  respective  antitypes,  has,  according  to 

*  Ling.  Sac.  under  JIT. 

x.  10.  1  Chron.  xxiii,  31.  2  Chron.  ii.  4.  Ezra.  iii.  5. 


SER.  XV.]       A    TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  505 

his  word,  caused,  of  right,  to  cease.g  Nevertheless, 
in  an  evangelical  sense,  they  have  their  appropriate 
correspondents  under  the  present  dispensation-;  and, 
to  denote  this  fact,  God  was  pleased,  when  speak- 
ing by  the  evangelical  prophet,  concerning  the 
New-Testament  church,  to  mention  her  officers  and 
her  solemnities  by  the  same  names  which  he  had 
given  to  those  of  national  Israel.  Thus,  for  instance, 
in  Isa.  Ixvith,  a  chapter  which  all  must  admit  treats 
of  the  gospel-church,  after  having  promised  (ver.  18.) 
to  "  gather  all  nations  and  tongues  to  see  his  glory," 
he  adds,  (ver.  21.)  "  I  will  also  take  of  them,"  (that 
is  either  of  all  nations,  or  of  the  converts  gathered 
out  of  them,)  "for  priests,  and  for  Levites  ;"  and 
which  cannot  be  understood  literally,  or  in  the  Mo- 
saic sense  of  priests  and  Levites;  for,  in  this  sense, 
none  could  be  Levites  unless  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,h  nor 
could  any,  of  right,  be  priests  unless  of  a  specified 
branch  of  that  tribe,  namely,  of  "  the  house  of 
Aaron,"1  Priests  and  Levites,  therefore,  in  the 
prophecy  under  consideration,  must  necessarily 
mean  those  who  are  such  in  a  mystical  sense.  Still, 
however,  it  is  a  question  among  commentators, 
whether  by  priests  and  Levites  be  meant  the  con- 
verts in  common,  from  all  nations  and  tongues,  who 
should  be  brought  for  an  offering  unto  the  Lord, 
(Ver.  20,)  or  only  those  of  them,  who  should  be  taken 
to  occupy  official  stations.  If  the  former,  (and  which 
was  Bp.  Louth's  opinion)  the  allusion  must  be  to 
national  Israel,  denominated  a  kingdom  of  priests  f . 
and  in  correspondence  to  which,  mystical  Israel, 

e  Is.  i.  13,  14.     Hosea  ii.  11.     *  Num.  iii.  6.     *  Exo.  xxviii.  1. 
xxix.  9.     1  Kings  xii.  31.     k  Exo.  xix.  6. 


506  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

the  gospel-church,  is  styled,  a  royal  priesthood* 
And  if  the  latter,  (of  which  opinion  were  Dr.  Gill 
and  Mr.  Henry?)  it  is  no  less  evident,  that  the  allu- 
sion must  be  to  the  priests  and  Levites,  properly  so 
called,  who  were  the  officers  of  the  Jewish  Sanctua- 
ry, and  to  whom  correspond  the  bishops  (that  is  pas- 
tors,) and  deacons  of  the  New-Testament  sanctuary ; 
Philip,  i.  1  ;  the  deacons  being,  like  the  Levites,  the 
more  numerous,  and  being  helpers  of  pastors,  as 
the  Levites  were  of  the  priests.  See  Acts  vi.  1 — 6, 
compared  with  Num.  iii.  5 — 9.  and  1  Chon.  xxiii. 
27 — 32.  Nevertheless,  it  should  not  be  fogotr- 
ten,  that,  as  the  blowing  of  the  trumpets  made 
no  part  of  the  arduous  service  of  the  Levites;  so, 
the  public  preaching  of  the  gospel  makes  no  part 
of  the  useful  and  various  service  of  deacons,  as  such  : 
The  sons  of  Aaron,  the  priests,  said  the  Lord,  shall 
"blow  with  the  trumpets ;  Num.  x.  $ ;  and  it  was 
only  to  his  ministers  that  Christ  said,  Go  ye  into  all 
the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature. — 
Mark  xvi.  15. 

Moreover,  as  the  officers  of  the  gospel-church,  so 
also  her  solemnities  were  spoken  of  in  prophecy,  by 
the  names  of  those  observed  at  the  tabernacle  and 

*  1  Pet.  ii.  9.  Even  upon  this  supposition,  however,  a  dis- 
tinction may  be  supposed  between  these  mystical  priests  and  Le- 
vites. By  the  priests  may  be  meant  gospel-ministers,  and  by  the 
Levites,  all  other  true  believers,  who  concur  with  them,  in  the  cause 
and  service  of  God,  as  the  Levites  did  with  the  priests.  For  as  all 
the  priests  were  Levites,  and  yet  all  the  Levites  were  not  priests,  so, 
though  all  genuine  gospel-ministers  are  Christians,  yet  all  genuine 
Christians  are  not  gospel  ministers.  Are  all  apostles  ?  Are  all 
prophets  1  Are  all  teachers  ?  No.  See  1  Cor.  xii.  29.  and  Ser.  xi. 

p.  357,<fcc. 

»  1  Pet.  ii.  9. 


SER.  XV.]       A   TYPE    OF    CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  507 

temple  :  It  shall  come  to  pass,  that  from  OTIC  new 
moon  to  another,  and  from  one  sabbath  to  another, 
shall  all  flesh,  that  is,  believers  of  all  nations,  come 
and  worship  before,  me,  saith  the  Lord.  Is.  Ixvi.  23. 
Now,  that  the  new -moon  festivals  of  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation, are  abolished,  all  Christians  are  agreed  ; 
and  if  so,  the  sabbaths,  (both  the  weekly  and  the 
annual)  associated  with  them,  must  be  abolished 
likewise  ;m  yet,  according  to  the  remarkable  prophe- 
cy before  us,  the  gospel-church,  has  her  new  moons 
and  her  sabbaths  in  constant  succession ;  and  which 
I  understood  to  be  happily  realized  in  our  monthly 
solemnity  of  the  Lord's  supper,  and  our  iceekly  pri- 
vileges of  evangelical  worship  on  the  Lord's  day; 
By  the  latter  we  are  joyfully  reminded  of  the  rest 
that  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God,  and  at  the 
former,  precious  things  indeed,  even  the  broken  body 
and  flowing  blood  of  the  dear  Redeemer,  are  put 
forth,  that  is  emblematically  exhibited  to  the  eye  of 
our  faith,*  for  the  nourishment  of  our  souls — and 
which  are  thus  put  forth  by  the  moon,  to  wit,  moon 
by  moon  or  every  month.  Herein  the  church  also, 
which,  like  the  moon,  undergoes  many  changes,  puts 
forth  her  graces  in  lively  actings  upon  Christ ;  who 
is  THE  TREE  OF  LIFE,  which,  to  denote  the  rich  va- 
riety of  his  grace,  appropriate  to  all  cases  and  con- 
ditions among  his  people,  is  said  to  bear  twelve 
manner  of  fruits,  and  to  yield  her  fruit  every 
month.  Rev.  xxii.  2. 

Thirdly,  "The  land  of  Joseph"  was  remarkable 
for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains  and 
the  precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills.  Mountains 
and  hills  are  alike  natural  and  durable.  They  are 

mHoseaii.  11. 


508  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

called  ancient,  because  as  old  as  the  earth,  and 
lasting,  bacause  they  shall  endure  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  For  these,  the  land  possessed  by  "the 
children  of  Joseph,"  Manasseh  and  Ephraim,  was 
pre-eminently  famous;  for,  to  the  former  belonged 
the  mountains  of  Gilcad  and  Bashan,  and  to  the  lat- 
ter mount  Ephraim  and  the  mountains  of  Samaria. 
These,  too,  were  very  fruitful,  abounding  not  only  in 
grass,  but  also  in  vines,  figs,  olives,  &c. 

Might  not  these  mountains  and  hills,  which,  in 
Gen.  xlix.  26,  are  called  everlasting,  be  emblematic 
of  the  perfections  of  God,  which  are  absolutely 
everlasting,  and  which,  in  Christ,  are  all  harmoni- 
ously and  incessantly  employed  for  the  safety  and 
happiness  of  his  chosen  and  redeemed  people  1n — 
Might  not  the  springs,  and  rills,  and  fruits  of  these 
mountains  and  hills,  be  designed  as  emblems 
of  that  abundance  and  variety  of  spiritual  bless- 
ings, with  which  God  blessed  his  chosen  in  Christ 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world0 — and  the  rather 
so,  because  all  these  blessings  emanate  from  the  lov- 
ing kindness  and  covenant-stipulations  of  the  ETER- 
NAL THREE,  whose  kindness  and  covenant  are  more 
stable  and  durable  than  "  the  mountains  that  shall 
depart,  and  the  hills  that  shall  be  removed  ?"p  Might 
not  the  same  also  be  emblematical  of  those  elevated 
frames  of  soul,  which  we  sometimes  enjoy,  in  read- 
ing the  Scriptures,  in  meditation  or  in  prayer,  or  un- 
der gospel-sermons  and  at  gospel-ordinances,  when 
from  "  the  shepherd's  tents,"  as  Bunyan  observes, 
"  we  behold  the  delectable  mountains,  and  have  a 
taste  of  the  celestial  fruits  1"q  Nay,  might  they  not 

nPsal.   xc.  1,  2.   andcxxv.   1,2.     °  Eph.  i.  3.     Pis.  liv.  10 
i  Jer.  xv.  16.     Psal.  xciv.  19.     Dan.  ix.  23.  Cant.  i.  8. 


SER.  XV.]    A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST^  CHURCH.       509 

adumbrate  the  heavenly  state  itself,  which,  with  all 
its  blessedness,  is  the  antitype  of  the  good  land,  yea, 
of  that  goodly  mountain,  and  Lebanon,  which  Mo- 
ses so  much  desired  to  see.  Deut.  iii.  25.  Thus 
Paul  had  a  desire  to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ. 
Philip,  i.  23. 

Fourthly,  "  The  land  of  Joseph"  was  admirable 
and  famous  for  the  precious  things  of  the  earth 
and  fulness  thereof.  By  the  earth,  in  distinction 
from  the  mountains  and  hills,  must  be  meant  the 
lower  lands  in  the  portion  of  Joseph,  and  by  its  pre- 
cious things  and  the  fulness  thereof,  are  designed 
the  excellent  and  plentiful  productions  of  those  lands ; 
the  arable  fields  yielding  grain,  the  meadows  hay, 
and  the  forests  timber ;  and  all  in  the  richest  variety, 
of  the  best  quality,  and  in  the  greatest  abundance. 
Hence  the  fame,  not  only  of  their  wheat  and  of  their 
sheep  and  cattle,  with  all  other  means  of  comfortable 
and  -even  of  sumptuous  living/  but  also  of  their 
oaks  for  building.8 

These  precious  things,  however,  my  Christian 
hearers,  should  remind  us  of  the  infinitely  more- pre- 
cious things,  which  we  enjoy  in  these  low  lands  of 
our  spiritual  Joseph,  that  is,  in  his  church  upon 
earth.  Here  he  furnishes  to  us  the  best  and  most 
sumptuous  fare  for  our  souls — even  himself  sacrificed 
for  us,  and  set  forth  to  our  believing  apprehensions, 
in  his  word  and  ordinances:  My  flesh,  saith  he,  is 
meat  indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed.  To 
these  he  also  gives  us  a  hearty  welcome,  saying, 
Eat,  O  friends ;  drink,  yea,  drink  abundantly,  O 
beloved?  Nay 'more,  he  renders  the  feast,  which  he 

r  Deut.  xxxii.  13, 14.     s  Ezek.  xxvii.  6.     *  Cant.  v.  I. 
68 


510  JOSEPH'S  LAND  [SER.  xv. 

has  prepared  for  his  church,  effectual  to  the  satisfy- 
ing of  all  her  vital  members,  however  impoverished 
in  themselves  :  7,  saith  he,  will  abundantly  bless  her 
provision  :  I  will  satisfy  her  poor  with  bread"  — 
Here,  too,  he  furnishes  the  best  timber,  or  materials 
for  building,  to  wit,  those  whom,  pursuant  to  electing 
love,  he  redeemed  by  his  blood,  and  whom  he  calls 
by  his  grace  out  of  the  forests  of  the  world  round 
about  us  ;  for  the  earth  is  the  Lord's  with  the  ful- 
ness thereof;  the  world  and  they  that  dwell  therein." 
Speaking  of  himself,  Christ  says  to  the  Father,  Thou 
hast  given  him  power  over  all  flesh,  (all  nations,) 
that  he  should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as 
thou  hast  given  him*  Thus  he  visits  the  Gentiles, 
to  take  out  of  them  a  people  for  his  name/  and  adds 
to  the  church  daily  such  as  shall  be  saved.  Acts 
ii.  47. 

I  shall  conclude  this  discourse,  by  taking  some  no- 
tice of  the  word  IJD  megged,  which  occurs  five  times 
in  our  text,  and  is  each  time  rendered  precious. 

This  word  signifies  what  is  most  excellent;  and 
being  used  to  denote  the  several  sorts  of  blessings 
which  distinguished  the  land  of  Joseph,  it  suggests 
that,  in  their  respective  kinds,  they  were  all  superla- 
tively good.  Such,  too,  and  pre-eminently  such,  are 
the  blessings  which  distinguish  the  land,  the  church 
of  Christ,  our  spiritual  Joseph.  The  temporal  bless- 
ings of  the  saints,  it  is  true,  are  the  same  in  kind, 
with  those  bestowed  on  others,  and,  in  degree,  often 
much  less  —  yet,  even  these  come  to  them  with  a 
blessing,  while  those  of  the  wicked  come  to  them 


u  Psal.  cxxxii.   15.     w  Psal.  xxiv.  1.     xJohn  xvii.  2. 
xv.  14. 


SER.  XV.]         A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST'S    CHURCH.  511 

with  a  curse :  "In  blessing,"  said  God  to  Abraham, 
I  will  bless  thee  ;''z  but  "  the  curse  of  the  Lord  is  in 
the  house  of  the  wicked."8  Those  blessings,  how- 
ever, which  are  peculiar  to  the  people  of  God,  and 
by  which,  therefore,  they  are  chiefly  distinguished, 
are  all  in  their  kinds,  emphatically  the  best.  They 
are  loved  with  the  best  love,  the  love  of  God,  nay, 
the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jcsus.b  They 
are  redeemed  by  an  incomparable  price,  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ.*  By  their  new  arid  heavenly  birth, 
they  are  most  nobly  descended,  being  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty. d  As  such,  they 
are  clothed  in  the  best  robe*  the  Redeemer's  righte- 
ousness, and  adorned  with  the  best  jewels,  the  grac- 
es of  the  Holy  Spirit/  They  constitute  the  best  so- 
ciety among  men ;  the  saints  being  the  excellent  of 
the  earth  ;e  hence,  when  the  Lord  calls  sinners  by  his 
grace  from  the  world  that  lieth  in  wickedness,  he  is 
said  to  take  them  from  the  dust  and  the  dunghill,  and 
to  set  them  with  princes,  even  with  the  princes  of  his 
people.^  But,  to  crown  all,  they  are  heirs  apparent 
to  the  best  inheritance,  an  inheritance  incorruptible 
and  undefilcd,  and  thatfadeth  not  away* 

The  word  under  consideration,  however,  not  only 
denotes  what  is  most  excellent,  but  also  what  is  most 
freely  given.  Accordingly,  in  its  plural  form,  it  is 
used  to  express  gifts  or  presents.1  Such  were  the 
blessings  by  which  God  distinguished  the  land  of  Jo- 
seph, and  such,  more  especially,  are  all  the  blessings 
of  grace  and  glory,  by  which  he  has  distinguished,  and 

1  Gen.  xxii.  17.      a  Prov.  iii.  33.     b  Rom.  viii.  39.  c  1  Pet.  i. 

19     .d  2  Cor.  vi.  18.    e  Luke  xv.  22.     f  Cant.  i.  10.  Gal.  v.  22, 

23.    *  Psal.   xvi.  3.    »  Ibid,  cxiii.  7,  8.     k  1  Pet.  i.  4.  '2  Chroi). 
xxxii.  23. 


512  JOSEPH'S  LAND  A  TYPE,  &c.     [SER.  xv. 

by  which  he  will  for  ever  distinguish  the  church 
of  Christ.  He  hath  saved  us  and  called  us  with 
an  holy  calling,  not  according  to  our  works,  but 
according  to  his  own  purpose  and  grace,  which 
was  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus,  before  the  world  be- 
gan™ And  as,  according  to  that  provision,  we  receive 
the  Spirit,  by  gift,  as  the  earnest  of  the  inheritance, 
so,  by  gift,  we  shall  receive  the  inheritance  itself; 
for  the  Lord  will  give,  to  his  heirs,  grace  and  glory. n 
In  heaven,  therefore,  for  ever,  as  well  as  upon  earth, 
during  the  time  of  our  pilgrimage,  we  shall  have  rea- 
son to  sing,  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but 
unto  thy  name,  give  glory,  for  thy  mercy,  and  for 
thy  truth's  sake.0  Amen. 

m2  Tim.  i.  9.     "Psal.  Ixxxiv.  11.     •  Ibid.  cxv.  1, 


SERMON    XVI. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JOSEPH,  CONTINUED. 


THE  GOOD-WILL  OF  HIM  THAT  DWELT  IN  THE  BUSH. 

Deut.  xxxiii.  13 — 17. — And  of  Joseph  he  said,  Blessed  of  the  Lord 
be  his  lan^  for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew,  and 
for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath.  And  for  the  precious  fruits 
brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for  the  precious  things  put  forth 
by  the  moon.  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains, 
and  for  the  precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills.  And  for  the  pre- 
cious things  of  the  earth  and  fulness  thereof;  and  for  the  good- 
will of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush.  Let  the  blessing  come  upon 
the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon  the  top  of  the  head  of  him  that 
was  separated  from  his  brethren.  His  glory  is  like  the  firstling 
of  his  bullock,  and  his  horns  are  like  the  horns  of  unicorns;  with 
them  he  shall  push  the  people  together  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  : 
and  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of  Ephraim,  and  they  are 
the  thousands  of  Manasseh. 


FROM  this  text,  you  have  already  heard  of  Joseph 
as  a  type  of  CHRIST,  and  of  his  land,  with  its  dis- 
tinguishing blessings,  as  a  type  of  the  church,  fa- 
voured with  spiritual  blessings  peculiar  to  her ;  but 
now  we  are  to  contemplate  that  which  is  the  source 
of  all  this  distinction  and  kindness,  namely,  THE 

GOOD-WILL  OF  HIM  THAT  DWELT  IN  THE  BUSH. 

The  history  of  the  fact  here  referred  to,  is  con- 
tained in  Exodus  iii.  1 — 6 ;  and  which,  to  refresh 
your  memories  with  it,  I  will  read  in  your  hearing : 
"  Now  Moses  kept  the  flock  of  Jethro  his  father-in- 
law,  the  priest  of  Midian :  and  he  led  the  flock  to 


514  THE    GOOD-WILL    OF    HIM  [SER.    XVI. 

the  back-side  of  the  desert  and  came  to  the  moun- 
tain of  God,  even  to  Horeb.  And  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  appeared  unto  him  in  a  flame  of  fire  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  bush  :  and  he  looked,  and  behold,  the 
bush  burned  with  fire,  and  the  bush  was  not  con- 
sumed. And  Moses  said,  I  will  now  turn  aside  and 
see  this  great  sight  why  the  bush  is  not  burnt.  And 
when  the  Lord  saw  that  he  turned  aside  to  see,  God 
called  unto  him  out  of  the  midst  of  the  bush,  and 
said,  Moses,  Moses.  And  he  said,  Here  am  I.  And 
he  said,  Draw  not  nigh  hither:  put  off  thy  shoes 
from  off  thy  feet,  for  the  place  whereon  thou  stand- 
est  is  holy  ground. — Moreover  he  said,  I  am  the  God 
of  thy  father,  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac, 
and  the  God  of  Jacob.  And  Moses  hid  his'  face  : 
for  he  was  afraid  to  look  upon  God." 

That  these  appearances  and  addresses  to  Moses 
were  not  illusions  of  his  imagination,  but  divine  re- 
alities, is  evident,  not  only  from  his  inspired  record 
of  them,  just  read,  and  from  his  recognition  of  them 
in  the  language  of  our  text,  but  also  from  the  New 
Testament,  wherein  they  are  appealed  to  by  CHRIST 
himself,  to  prove  the  resurrection,51  and  by  Stephen, 
to  prove  the  divine  mission  of  Moses  to  bring  Israel 
out  of  Egypt.b 

In  justice,  therefore,  to  this  part  of  our  text,  we 
must  view  it  in  the  light  of  the  vision  to  which  it  has 
respect,  and  treat  it  agreeably  to  the  mystical  design 
of  that  vision.  What  this  design  was,  we  are  not 
left  to  conjecture ;  it  was  revealed  to  Moses,  and 
recorded  by  him  for  our  instruction. 

It  was  primarily  to  illustrate  to  Moses  the  deplor- 
able condition  of  Israel,  at  that  time,  in  Egypt.  In 

•  Mark  xii.  26,  27.   Luke  xx.  $7,  38.    b  Acts  vii.  29—35. 


SER.   XVI.]       THAT   DWELT    IN    THE    BUSH.  515 

their  civil  state,  as  under  the  dominion  of  Pharaoh, 
they  resembled  a  bush,  starving  under  the  shadow  of 
a  great  tree,  and,  in  their  suffering  state,  they  were 
comparable  to  that  bush  as  all  onfire*  The  object  of 
Pharaoh  was  to  diminish  them.*  To  accomplish  this, 
he  adopted  various  means. — 1.  He  subjected  them 
to  excessive  toil.e — 2.  By  his  task-masters,  he  en- 
forced their  compliance  with  extreme  rlgor.f  "But" 
(strange  as  it  seemed)  "  the  more  they  afflicted  them, 
the  more  they  multiplied  and  grew."g  Therefore, — 3. 
He  enjoined  two  successive  methods  to  murder  all 
their  male  infants.h  And,  these  likewise  not  an- 
swering his  expectations, — 4.  He  required  of  them 
what  he  knew  must  very  soon,  at  least,  become  im- 
possible— that  is,  to  make  their  accustomed  tale  or 
number  of  bricks  daily,  without  furnishing  them,  as 
he  had  done,  with  the  requisite  article  of  straw — an 
article  which,  in  the  Egyptian  mode  of  brick-making, 
was  in  some  way  indispensable  :*  "  Pharaoh  com- 
manded the  task-masters,"  who  were  Egyptians.1 — 
"  and  their  officers,"  a  kind  of  overseers  under  them, 
and  who  were  Hebrews,* — saying,  "Ye  shall  no 
more  give  the  people  straw  to  make  brick,  as  here- 
tofore :  let  them  go  and  gather  straw  for  themselves. 
And  the  tale  of  the  bricks  which  they  did  make  here- 
tofore, you  shall  lay  upon  them ;  you  shall  not  di- 

eExo.  iii.7.  d  Ibid.  i.  8— 10.  e  Ibid.  ver.  11.  f  Ibid.  ver.  13, 14. 
elbid.  ver.  12.  h  Exo.  i.  15,  16. 22.  'Ibid,  i.  11.  *  Ibid.  v.  14. 

*  According  to  the  researches  and  conclusions  of  PHILO  (Life 
of  Moses)  and  of  POCOCKE  (Observations  on  Egypt)  the  bricks  in 
question  were  not  burnt,  but  were  merely  dried  in  the  sun,  and 
therefore  the  clay  or  mortar  of  which  they  were  made,  was  required 
to  be  mixed  with  chopped  straw,  as  a  means  of  binding  it  together* 


516  THE    GOOD-WILL    OP   HIM          [sER.  XVI* 

minish  ought  thereof."1  The  task-masters  promptly 
delivered  the  mandate  to  the  people,  and  vehement- 
ly urged  their  compliance  with  it.m  "  So  the  peo- 
ple were  scattered  abroad  throughout  all  the  land  of 
Egypt,"  that  is,  all  parts  of  it  adjacent  to  their  lo- 
cation, "  to  gather  stubble  instead  of  straw."n  Pha- 
raoh's aim  in  making  this  cruel  and  unreasonable 
demand  of  the  Israelites,  probably  was  to  bring  them 
under  the  charge  of  wilful  disobedience  to  his  royal 
edict,  that,  under  pretence  of  their  disloyalty,  he 
might  authorize  his  armed  forces  to  cut  them  off 
with  the  sword  ;  and  of  which,  it  would  seem,  they 
were  apprehensive.  See  Exo.  v.  21.  Now,  these 
things  considered,  well  might  Israel  be  symbolized 
by  a  burning  bush. 

National  Israel,  however,  was  a  figure  of  the  true 
church  of  God  in  all  ages,  and  especially  a  type  of 
her  in  gospel-times ;  and  which,  no  less  obviously, 
corresponds  to  this  similitude.  More  commonly, 
indeed,  the  church  is  set  forth  by  something  valua- 
ble in  itself,  as  a  house,  a  temple,  a  city,  &c.;  yet  here 
she  is  likened  to  a  thing  of  naught,  a  bush,  a  mere 
bramble. 

Amid  tall  cedars  and  stately  oaks,  how  low,  and 
mean,  and  worthless,  must,  a  bush  appear !  Such  the 
appearance  of  the  humble  church  of  Christ,  amid 
the  pompous  kingdoms  of  this  world — especially 
kingdoms  including  establishments  of  religion,  as  ex- 
emplified, not  only  in  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Baby- 
on,  Assyria,  and  Egypt,  but  also  in  the  several  king- 
doms of  modern  Europe.  Compared  with  them, 

*Exod.  v.  6,  7,  8.— m  Ver,  10,  II,  13.—"  Ver.  12, 


SER.  XVI.]       THAT   DWELT    IN    THE    BUSH.  517 

or  with  any  of  the  splendid  branches  of  mystical 
Babylon,  the  true  church,  to  the  eye  of  sense  and 
to  that  of  carnal  reason,  has  always  appeared  like  a 
shrub,  a  mere  under-growth.  See  Ezek.  xxxi.  Zeph. 
iii.  and  Rev.  xvii. 

Fine  and  flourishing  trees  are  in  great  request; 
but  who  cares  for  a  bush?  So,  while  worldly  king- 
doms and  anti-christian  societies  are  highly  respect- 
ed and  admired,  it  may  still  be  said  of  the  true 
church,  This  is  Zion,  whom  no  man  seeketh  after.0 
Nor  is  it  any  matter  of  wonder,  that  such  is  the  fact. 
For,  if  Christ  himself,  though,  in  the  eyes  of  his 
church,  He  is  "the  chiefest  among  ten  thousand,  and 
altogether  lovely,"  is  regarded,  by  the  carnal,  as  "  a 
root  out  of  dry  ground,  having  no  form  or  comeli- 
ness wherefore  they  should  desire  him,"  why  should 
it  be  thought  strange,  that  the  church,  though  in  the 
eyes  of  Christ,  she  is,  through  his  comeliness,  put 
upon  her,  "  the  perfection  of  beauty,"  nay,  "  all  fair 
and  without  spot" — why,  I  say,  should  it  be  thought 
strange,  that  she,  in  the  view  of  the  carnal  world, 
appears  as  a  mere  bush,  a  thing  of  nought  ?  It  is 
abundantly  accounted  for,  by  the  world's  ignorance 
both  of  her  and  of  her  Lord  :  The  world  knoweth  us 
not,  because  it  knew  him  not.p  Accordingly,  in  all 
generations,  the  choicest  members  of  the  church, 
(the  apostles  themselves  not  excepted,)  have  been 
considered  and  treated,  "as  the  filth  of  the  world,  and 
the  off-scouring  of  all  things  unto  this  day."  See  1 
Cor.  iv.  13. 

Hence  we  are  prepared  to  contemplate  the  church 
in  the  farther  light  of  this  emblem,  which  is  not  only 

0  Jer.  xxx.  17.     P  1  John  iii.  1. 

69 


6l8  THE    GOOD-WILL    OF    HIM  [sER.  XVfi 

&bush,  but  a  bush  on  fire.  So  just  and  appropriate 
was  this  emblem,  that  many  of  Ziori's  most  illustri- 
ous members,  in  different  ages  and  nations,  have  li~ 
terally  corresponded  to  it ;  having,  upon  their  open 
avowal  of  the  Truth  and  their  persevering  adherence 
to  it,  been  actually  exposed  to  the  flames  of  martyr- 
dom ;  in  which  they  have,  as  it  were,  offered  up  their 
souls,  yea,  their  whole  selves,  a  willing  sacrifice  to 
God.  But,  without  adverting  to  such  times  and  such 
extremes,  a  burning  bush  is  no  more  than  a  lively 
and  instructive  emblem  of  the  church,  amid  the 
trials  and  sufferings  which  more  commonly  attend 
her  in  the  militant  state.  For,  however  national  and 
worldly  societies,  called  churches,  have  fattened  and 
flourished  under  "that  honor  which  cometh  from 
tnen,"  the  church  of  Christ  has  usually  consisted  of 
*4an  afflicted  and  poor  people,  trusting  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,"q  because  they  have  realized  that  no 
other  object  of  trust  is  competent  to  protect  their 
persons,  or  to  supply  their  wants. 

The  sufferings  of  the  saints  from  persecution,  are 
not  confined  to  martyrdom,  nor  even  to  fines  and 
imprisonments  by  law,  but  include  all  those  slander- 
ous reports,  suggestions,  and  insinuations,  by  which 
our  characters,  our  peace,  and  our  usefulness  are 
assailed.  Fires,  very  injurious  to  us,  may  be  kindled 
by  the  tongue  as  well  as  by  the  hand:  An  ungodly 
man  diggeth  up  eml ;  and  in  his  lips  there  is  a 
burning  fire.T  This  fire,  too,  is  extremely  commu- 
nicative and  spreading  ;  which  made  an  apostle  ex- 
claim, Behold  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kin- 
tfleth!  Jas.  iii.  5.  A  little — yes,  a  word,  a  hint 
against  a  person,  given  to  one  of  the  right  make,  and 

^Zeph,  iii.  l&     r  Prov.  xvi.  2?. 

' 


SER.  XVI.]       THAT   DWELT   IN    THE    BUSH.  519 

who  already  feels  unfriendly  toward  the  object  of 
the  calumny,  is  like  a  spark  blown  into  a  bale  of  cot- 
ton— it  kindles  instantly  and  spreads  rapidly.  Thug 
it  is,  that  a  froward  man  soweth  strife  ;  and  a  whis^ 
perer,  more  frequently  than  an  open  railer,  sepa* 
rateth  chief  friends.* 

This  course,  however,  is  not  invariably  taken  by 
the  promoters  of  slander;  for,  as  incendiaries,  in 
some  instances,  deposit  fire  in  such  materials  as  will 
not  communicate  it  till  in  the  night,  these  sons  and 
daughters  of  wickedness  more  commonly  confide 
their  slanderof%- hints — nay,  their  downright  and 
ruinous  falsehoods,  to  those  only,  whom  they  con- 
sider artful  enough  to  conceal  them,  until  the 
party  accused  shall  be  assailed  by  others,  hoping 
that  then,  in  the  night  of  his  tribulation,  when  the 
darkness  of  suspicion  has  covered  his  character,, 
these,  among  the  host  of  evil  reports  concerning 
him,  will  obtain  a  welcome  reception. 

Those  fires  are  the  most  alarming  which  are 
nearest  home ;  and  those,  especially,  are  distressing 
and  injurious  to  mankind,  which  break  out  in  their 
own  houses.  So,  to  the  saints,  are  those  fires  of 
persecution  which  are  kindled  in  the  churches  or 
families  to  which  they  respectively  belong.  And 
where  is  the  church  of  Christ,  that  for  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time  together,  has  been  entirely 
exempt  from  this  kind  of  fire?  Neither  churches 
nor  ministers  can  search  the  hearts  of  candidates 
for  membership ;  and  "  false  brethren  unawares 
brought  in,"1  as  they  do  not  love  the  doctrine  of 

Christ,  nor  the  discipline  of  his  house,  are  sure, 

\ 

•  Prdv.  xvi.  28.     *  Gal.  ii.  4. 


520  THE    GOOD- WILL    OF    HIM  [sER.  XVI. 

sooner  or  later,  to  become  restless  and  troublesome. 
Besides,  even  among  real  Christians  it  often  hap- 
pens, that  some,  through  weakness  or  jealousies, 
conceive  evil  imaginations  of  others,  and  thereupon 
hint  or  whisper  correspondent  impressions,  till,  per- 
haps far  beyond  their  own  intentions  at  the  time* 
the  mischief  spreads  and  the  bush  burns.  How 
needful,  then,  to  the  members  of  every  church,  nay,  to 
Christians  in  common,  is  that  apostolic  caution,  which 
saith,  "  If  ye  bite  and  devour  one  another ,  take 
heed  that  ye  be  not  consumed  one  of  another"*  It 
is  also  a  remarkable  fact,  that  such  fires  kindled  in 
churches,  almost  in  every  instance,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, extend  to  their  pastors,  and  often  to  other 
gospel-m  nisters.  Even  the  apostles  were  not  ex- 
empt :  Who  is  offended,  said  Paul,  and  I  burn  not?* 
The  same  also,  in  kind,  takes  place  in  families. 
For  it  rarely  happens  in  a  family,  that  there  is  an 
Isaac  without  an  Ishmael  to  mock  him — a  Jacob 
without  an  Esau  to  hate  him — or  a  Joseph  without 
brethren  to  envy  him.  Hence,  many  a  godly  wife  or 
husband,  parent  or  child,  brother  or  sister,  or  even 
domestic  or  other  inmate,  is  or  has  been  like  a  burn- 
ing bush,  by  reason  of  the  persecuting  disposition 
of  their  ungodly  correlatives,  or  others  in  the  same 
household.  Probably  some  now  hearing  me  know 
this  by  sad  experience  ;  for,  though  you  may  not  be 
openly  mocked  and  ridiculed,  you  may,  nevertheless, 
see,  and  mourn  while  you  see,  that  those  about  you 
hate  the  God  you  worship — the  Christ  you  love — the 
Truth  you  believe — and  the  people  with  whom  you 

*  As  voracious  animals  are.     Gal.  v.  15. 
u  2  Cor.  xi.  29. 


SER.  XVI.]       THAT   DWELT    IN    THE    BUSH.  521 

are  happily  and  affectionately  associated  in  church- 
relation.  To  account  for  it,  duly  consider  the  words 
of  our  Lord;  Luke  xii.  49 — 53;  and  those  of  the 
apostle;  Gal.  iv.  28 — 31. 

Persecutions,  however,  are  not  the  only  fires,, 
which  cause  the  bush,  the  church  of  Christ,  to  burn. 
Real  saints  are  daily  annoyed  by  the  corruptions  of 
their  fallen  nature,  which  war  against  their  renewed 
souls."  Hence  those  flashes  of  anger,  those  risings 
of  pride,  and  those  heats  of  discontent,  by  reason  of 
which  they  sometimes  burn  within,  and,  on  account 
of  which,  they  are  afterwards  caused  to  mourn  in 
secret  places.  They,  too,  are  specially  assailed  by 
the  temptations  of  Satan ;  which  are  justly  called 
fiery  darts*  because,  like  darts,  they  come  sudden- 
ly and  unexpectedly,  and,  like  fire,  occasion  pain  and 
anguish.  Besides,  it  has  commonly  fallen  to  the 
lot  of  the  saints,  to  share  largely  in  personal  and 
domestic  afflictions — such  as  sickness,  bereavement 
and  disappointment — and,  many  of  them,  also,  in 
poverty,  perplexity  and  oppression  ;  all  which  are 
likened  to  fires — yet  fires  in  which  we  are  exhorted 
to  glorify  the  Lord.  See  Is.  xxiv.  15.  How  fit  an 
emblem  of  the  church,  then,  was  that  burning  bush! 

But  let  us  hasten  to  consider  the  wonder  which  the 
vision  involved.  The  object  exhibited,  though  a 
bush,  a  thing  in  itself  combustible,  and  though  all 
on  fire,  yet  was  not  consumed.  This,  as  was  di- 
vinely intended,  attracted  and  fixed  the  attention  of 
Moses:  "And  Moses  said,"  (within  himself,)  "I  will 
now  turn  aside,"  (for  the  bush,  it  seems,  stood  a 

*  Gal.  v.  17.  1  Pet.  ii.  11.     *  Eph.  vi.  16. 


52?  THE    GOOD- WILL   OF    HIM  [sER.  XV*. 

little  off  from  the  course  he  was  taking,)  "  and  see" 
(that  is,  observe  and  consider)  this  great  sight  why 
the  bush  is  not  burnt.7  The  result  of  his  thoughts  on 
the  vision,  and  of  the  instruction  he  received  in  re- 
lation thereto,  may  be  concluded  from  his  allusion  to 
it  in  our  text,  naniely,  that  he  was  enabled  to  under- 
stand that  the  bush  was  preserved  by  the  Angel 
that  dwelt  in  it ;  who  in  the  original  of  Exo.  hi.  2 — 7, 
is  called  the  Angel  of  Jehovah,  nay,  expressly  JE- 
HOVAH, as  well  as  GOD,  and  who  is  none  other 
than  the  increated  Angel,  the  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST, 
who  possesses  all  the  perfections  of  the  divine  NA- 
TURE or  BEING,  which,  in  the  SON,  as  well  as  in  the 
Father,  and  in  the  HOLY  SPIRIT,  is  over  all,  God 
blessed  for  ever.  Rom.  ix.  5. 

Now,  as  the  burning  bush,  of  which  Moses  had  a 
vision,  was  primarily  an  emblem  of  suffering  Israel, 
the  residence  of  the  divine  Angel  in  it,  and  his  mira- 
culous preservation  of  it,  denoted  his  presence  with 
that  suffering  people,  and  his  more  wonderful  pre- 
servation of  them,  while  involved  in  afflictions,  com- 
parable to  the  flames  which  involved  the  bush.  Even 
in  Egypt,  "  he  saved  them  from  the  hand  of  him  that 
hated  them,"  that  is,  from  his  destroying  power, 
"  and,"  at  the  appointed  time,  moreover,  "redeemed 
them  from  the  hand  of  that  enemy,'5  namely,  Pha- 
raoh.2 Moses  was  but  the  instrument,  by  whom 
the  hand  qf  this  Almighty  Angel  brought  them  out.a 
In  his  manifold  mercies,  he  forsook  them  not  in  the 
wilderness :  "  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  departed  not 
from  them  by  day  to  lead  them  in  the  way ;  neither 

y  Exo.  iii.  3.     z  Fsal.  cvi,  10.     a  Acts  vii.  35,  36.     Comp.  Is. 
Ixiii.  9. 


SER.  XVI.]       THAT   DWELT   IN   THE   BUSH.  523 

the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  to  show  them  light,  and  the 
way  wherein  they  should  go."b  Before  this  symbol 
of  the  Angel's  presence,  every  obstacle  to  the  march 
of  Israel  instantly  yielded  :  The  sea  saw  it,  and  fled  : 
Jordan  was  driven  back.  The  mountains  skipped 
like  rams,  and  the  little  hills  like  lambs.c  Nor  did 
he  merely  bring  them  out  of  bondage  and  remove 
the  obstacles  to  their  progress;  but  he  supplied 
their  wants  also  during  their  journey  :  "He  gave 
them  bread  from  heaven,  and  brought  forth  water 
for  them  out  of  the  rock;"  nay,  "forty  years  he 
'sustained  them  in  the  wilderness  ;  so  that  they  lacked 
nothing  ;  their  clothes  waxed  not  old,  and  their  feet 
swelled  not  ;"d  and  when  they  were  about  to  take 
possession  of  the  promised  land,  the  same  Angel,  to 
assure  Joshua  of  victory  over  the  Canaanites,  ap- 
peared to  Mm,  by  Jericho,  with  his  drawn  sword  in 
his  hand,  and  announced  himself  to  be  The  cap* 
tain  of  the  host  of  the  Lord,  and  therefore,  as  ready 
to  fight  their  battles,  and  subdue  all  that  might 
withstand  them.  See  Josh.  v.  13  —  15. 

Another  design  of  this  Angel's  residence  in  the 
burning  bush,  might  be  to  prefigure  his  future  incar- 
nation; for,  while  he  tabernacled  in  human  nature  up- 
on earth,  he  was,  in  the  eyes  of  the  carnal,  like  a  mere 
bush,  low  and  mean,  compared  with  the  sovereigns 
of  the  world  ;  yea,  like  a  bush  on  fire,  being  exposed 
to  reproaches  from  men—  to  fiery  temptations  frorti 
Satan,  and  even  to  the  flames  of  incensed  justice, 
which  kindled  upon  him  as  the  substitute  of  his 


b  Nehe,  ix.  19.     «  PsaK  cxiv.  3,  4.     *  Neh,  ix.  15.  21  . 
•Deut.  ii.  7, 


524  THE    GOOD-WILL    OF    HIM  [sER.  XVI. 

guilty  people.  Truly  he  was  "  a  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief,"  and  "suffered  the  just  for  the 
unjust ;''  yet,  like  the  burning  bush  that  Moses  saw, 
he  was  not  consumed,  his  divinity  sustained  his 
humanity;  and  though,  according  to  covenant- 
stipulation,  he  was  "  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,"  even 
in  this  he  saw  no  corruption,  being,  on  the  third 
day,  "  quickened  by  the  Spirit."  1  Pet.  iii.  18. 

Ultimately  and  principally,  however,  this  vision,  as 
noticed  before,  respected  the  whole  family  of  God's 
elect,  of  all  nations  and  generations,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  the  world.  These  constitute 
God's  one  mystical  Israel,  of  which  his  one  national 
Israel  was  a  typee — and  Christ's  one  mystical  body, 
of  which  his  one  natural  body  was  a  symbol/  Ac- 
cordingly, Christ,  speaking  of  his  Church,  says,  My 
dove,  my  undefiled,  is  but  one,  &c.£  She  is  so,  as 
-the 'object  of  electing  love,  and  she  is  so  also  in 
regard  to  all  who,  at  any  given  time,  are  in  a  called 
state,  and  therefore  vitally  united  to  him.h  As  such 
she  is  that  kingdom  of  his,  which  is  not  of  this  world  f 
and  into  which  his  redeemed  are  translated  at  their 
effectual  calling,  wherein  they  are  delivered  from 
the  power  of  darkness*  In  other  words,  as  nation- 
al Israel  were  the  chosen  people  of  God,  and  under 
the  providential  care  and  conduct  of  the  divine 
Angel,  as  well  before  as  after  their  calling  out  of 
Egypt ;  so,  all  appertaining  to  mystical  Israel  were 
sanctified  by  God  the  Father,  that  is,  set  apart  by 
him  in  eternal  election,  and,  hence,  even  in  their  car- 


«  Gal.  vi.  16.  1  Pet.  ii.  9.     f  Eph.  i.  22,  23.  iv.  16.    Col.  i.  18. 
s  Cant.  vi.  9.     h  1  Cor.  x.  16,  17.     *  John  xviii.  36.     k  Col.  i.  13. 


SER.  XVI.]       THAT   DWELT    IN   THE    BUSH.  525 

nal  state,  are  preserved  by  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom 
they  were  chosen  before  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
and,  in  due  'time,  are  called,  that  is,  to  be  saints. 
See  Jude  i.  1.  Eph.  i.  3,  4.  and  Rom.  i.  6,  7. 

Nor  has  the  non-consumption  of  the  symbolic 
bush  been  any  less  realized  in  mystical  Israel,  than 
it  was  in  literal  Israel.  For,  though  the  church  of 
true  believers,  has  always  been  like  a  mere  bush,  in 
the  esteem  of  the  world,  and  though,  by  reason  of 
persecutions,  temptations,  and  afflictions,  she  has 
always  resembled  a  bush  on  fire;  still,  to  the  praise 
of  victorious  grace,  she  has  not  been,  and  she  never 
can  be  consumed.  Her  keeper  is  JEHOVAH,  whose 
power  and  vigilance  bid  defiance  to  all  the  influence 
and  all  the  exertions  of  Satan  and  all  his  agents. 
He  that  keepeth  Israel  shall  neither  slumber  nor 
sleep.1  Of  his  vineyard,  the  church,  he  says,  I  the 
LORD  do  keep  it ;  I  will  water  it  every  moment :  lest 
any  hurt  it,  I  will  keep  it  night  and  day.m 

Hence,  even  the  allegorical  smith,  Satan  himself, 
though,  by  divine  sufferance,  he  blows  the  coals  of 
mischief  with  the  breath  of  his  own  infernal  malice, 
and  works  by  thejire  that  never  shall  be  quenched,  is 
unable  to  forge  an  instrument  sharp  enough  to  sever 
the  church  from  Christ,  or  from  the  love  of  God  which 
is  in  him.  For  the  prophet,  addressing  her,  says,  No 
weapon  that  is  formed  against  thee  shall  prosper, 
and  every  tongue  that  shall  rise  against  thee  in 
judgment,  thou  shalt  condemn.  To  confirm  which, 
he  adds,  This  is  the  heritage  of  the  servants  of  the 

1  Psal.  cxxi.  4.     m  Is.  xxvii.  3. 
70 


526  THE   GOOD-WILL    OF    HIM          [SER.  Xfl 

LORD,  and  their  righteousness  is  of  me,  saith  the 
LORD. 

Moreover,  that  his  church  might  expect  tribula- 
tion and  persecution,  and  not  despair  of  safety  in  the 
midst  of  them,  he  elsewhere  says  to  her,  When  thou 
passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be  with  thee ;  and 
through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not  overflow  thee : 
when  thou  walkest  through  the  fir 'e,  thou  shall  not  be 
burned ;  neither  shall  the  flame  kindle  upon  thee. 
For  I  am  the  LORD  thy  God,  the  Holy  One  of  Is- 
-racl,  thy  Saviour.0  The  immediate  cause,  too,  of  the 
church's  safety,  is  happily  illustrated  by  the  symbol 
before  us :  for,  as  the  bush  was  preserved  by  its 
dwelling  in  the  fire  and  the  fire  in  it ;  so  the  church 
is  preserved  by  the  mutual  indwelling  of  Christ  and 
believers  :  we  dwell  in  him  and  he  in  us  ;p  we  dwell 
in  him,  as  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS,*  and  he 
dwells  in  us,  as  THE  HOPE  OF  GLORY/  And  as, 
by  reason  of  the  former,  we  cannot  come  into  con- 
demnation; so,  by  reason  of  the  latter,  we  cannot 
relapse  into  a  state  of  unregeneracy.  For  seeing  that 
He  who  was  "  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was 
raised  again  for  our  justification,"  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession  for  us,  we  cannot  die  :  Because  I 
live,  saith  He  to  his  members,  ye  shall  live  also.9 
CHRIST,  in  a  word,  is  our  LIFE  :  and  when  Christ 
who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall  ye  also,  said 
Paul  to  believers,  appear  with  him  in  glory.* 

The  import,  nevertheless,  of  this  prophetic  prayer 
for  the  children  of  Joseph,  requires  a  more  appro- 

«  Is,  liv.  16,  17.  Comp.  Rom.  viii.  17. 35—39.  °  Is.  xliii.  2,  3. 
p  1  John  iv.  13.  1  Jer.  xxiii.  6.  r  Col.  i.  27.  '  John  xiv.  19. 
'  Col.  iii.  4. 


Ea  .  xvi.]     THAT  DWELT  IN  THE  BUSH.  527 

priate  consideration,  both  critically  and  theologically. 
It  was  a  prayer,  as  you  must  perceive,  that,  besides 
all  the  temporal  blessings  assigned  to  them,  they 
might  especially  be  distinguished  by  the  good  icill 
of  Mm  that  dwelt  in  the  bush.  Now,  whereas  the 
posterity  of  Joseph,  as  noticed  in  the  preceding  dis- 
course, were  typical  of  the  spiritual  posterity  of 
his  great  Antitype,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  this 
prayer,  dictated  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  plainly 
shows  that  all  the  spiritual  blessings  by  which  the 
church  is  distinguished,  come  through  Him,  and 
precede  from  his  good-will* 

The  word  p*"»  ratzori,  here  rendered  good-will,  is 
from  njn  ratzah,  to  like,  to  accept,  to  favour,  &c, 
Hence, 

1.  It  denotes  a  voluntary  or  free-will  offering. 
Levit.  i.  3.  Such  is  the  good-will  of  Christ  toward 
his  people.  Freely  he  engaged  his  heart  to  ap- 
proach unto  God  the  Father,  to  espouse  their  cause 
and  become  their  surety/  Most  voluntary  was  his 
advent  into  the  world,  when,  pursuant  to  covenant- 
stipulation,  He,  as  the  antitype  and  the  substance  of 
all  the  sacrifices  which  prefigured  him,  appeared  to 
put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.  See  Psal. 
xl.  6 — 8.  and  Heb.  ix.  26.  For  being,  with  his  own 
consent,  made  under  the  law — that  law  which  was  in 
his  heart,  he  voluntarily  magnified  it,  by  yielding  a 
cordial  obedience  to  it  in  his  human  life,  and  made  it 
honorable,  by  enduring  its  righteous  penalty  in  his 
vicarious  death:  He  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for 
the  unjust9  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God.w  Nor 

*  Jer,  zxx. .21.  Micah  v.  2.     w  Gal.  iv.  4,  5.   1  Pet,  iiu  1& 


528  THE    GOOD -WILL  OF    HIM  [SER.  XVI. 

can  either  his  suretyship-engagements,  or  his  con- 
sequent incarnation,  obedience  and  sufferings,  be 
attributed  to  any  thing  but  his  pme  good-tcill  toward, 
the  people  for  whom  be  became  accountable.  See 
John  x.  15—18.  and  Eph.  v.  2. 

2.  This  word  denotes  the  acceptdbleness  to  the 
Lord,  of  sacrifices  offered  to  him,  and  of  persons 
presented  before  him,  according  to  his  revealed  will. 
Such,  for  the  end  designed,  was  any  authorized 
and  unblemished  sacrifice  under  the  law :  "  It  shall 
be  perfect,  to  be  p^n  ratzon,  ACCEPTED  ;  there  shall 
be  no  blemish   therein."      Levit.   xxli.  21.      How 
much  more  so,   then,  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  who 
hath  given  HIMSELF,  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to 
God,  for    a    sweet-smelling   savor. K      And   when 
Aaron  had  made  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  na- 
tional  Israel,  by  the  appointed  sacrifices  which  he 
offered  upon  the  brazen  altar,  his  appearance  in  the 
holy  of  holies,  with  the  golden  plate,  on  which  was 
inscribed  HOLINESS  TO  THE  LORD,  placed  upon  his 
forehead,  denoted  that  ceremonially  they  were  pn 
ratzon  ACCEPTED  before  the  LORD/     Herein  Aaron 
was  eminently  a  type  of  Christ;  who,  when  he  had, 
by   the  sacrifice  of  himself,    made    a   satisfactory 
atonement  to  divine  Justice  for  the  sins  of  mystical 
Israel,  entered,  not  into  the  holy  places,  made  with 
hands,  those  of  the  tabernacle  and  temple,  which 
were  figures   of  the  true,   but  into   heaven  itself, 
now  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us.    Heb. 
ix.  24.     He,  as  our  Representative,  is,  for  us,  HOLI- 
NESS  TO   THE   LORD.     He,  as   typified   in  Aaron, 

*  Eph.  v,  2.    y  Exo.  xxviii,  36—38, 


SER.  XVI.]       THAT  DWELT    IN    THE    BUSH.  529 

bears  the  iniquity  of  our  holy  things ;  that  is,  he 
answers  for  the  imperfection  which  mingles  evrn 
with  our  sanctuary-services ;  and  hence  it  is,  that 
we  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God 
by  Jesus  Christ;  our  persons  being. first  made  AC- 
CEPTED in  Him,  THE  BELOVED.  See  Exo.  xviii.  38. 
1  Pet.  ii.  5.  and  Eph.  i.  6.  And, 

3.  The  word  under  consideration  denotes  favor, 
even  that  peculiar  FAVOR  or  LOVE  by  which  God 
disting  ii;  hes  his  chosen  :  Remember  me,  O  LORD, 
said  David,  pro  birtzon  with  or  in  the  FAVOR  that 
thou  bearest  unto  thy  people.  Psal  cvi.  4. 

This  is  covenanted  Favor,  the  FAVOR  of  Father, 
Son,  and  Spirit,  expressed  in  their  respective  and 
voluntary  stipulations  in  the  EVERLASTING  COVE- 
NANT OF  GRACE,  that  covenant  which  is  ordered  in 
all  things  and  sure* 

In  relation,  however,  to  the  subject  before  us,  this 
Favor  requires  notice  only  as  it  resides  in  the  Son, 
and  is  manifested  by  him  toward  the  people  of  his 
charge.  According  to  this  Favor,  he  redeemed 
them  :  Christ  hath  loved  us,  and  hath  given  him- 
self for  us,  whereby  he  hath  redeemed  us  from  all 
iniquity.  Eph.  v.  2.  Titus  ii.  14.  Comp.  2  Cor. 
viii.  9.  As  an  instance  of  this  Favor,  his  redeemed, 
by  nature  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  are  made  to 
hear  his  voice  and  live.  John  v.  .25.  Hence  the 
regenerate  are  denominated,  the  called  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Rom.  i.  6.  This  Favor  is  variously  appa- 
rent in  his  care  over  them,  and  his  sympathy  with 
them,  after  called :  He  shall  feed  his  flock  like  a 

1 2  Sam.  xxiii.  5. 


530  THE    GOOD-WILL.  OF   HIM          [sER.    XVI. 

Shepherd :  He  shall  gather  the  lambs  with  his  arm, 
and  carry  them  in  his  bosom,  and  shall  gently  lead 
those  that  are  with  young,  (those  in  whom  Christ  is 
formed  by  the  Spirit)  until  the  time  of  their  deliver- 
ance, at  the  open  manifestation  of  their  acceptance 
in  Him.  Is.  xl.  11.  From  this  Favor,  come  all  the 
under  shepherds,  or  gospel-ministers  ;  for,  with  all 
their  qualifications,  they  are  the  gifts  of  Christ,  the 
chief  Shepherd.  See  Jer.  iii.  15.  and  Eph.  iv.  11, 
12.  To  his  Favor,  we  are  indebted  for  all  "  the 
great  and  precious  promises"  of  grace  and  glory  ; 
for  they  were  all  originally  made  to  him,  as  our 
covenantee,  and  are  fulfilled  in  our  experience,  upon 
his  faithful  compliance  with  his  covenant-stipula- 
tions on  our  behalf.  In  him,  therefore,  they  are 
all  YEA,  and  in  him  AMEN,  unto  the  glory  of  God 
by  us.  2  Cor.  i.  20.  Nay  more,  through  his  Favor, 
we  receive  the  COMFORTER:  I  will  pray  the  Father, 
said  Christ  to  his  disciples,  and  he  shall  give  you 
another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you 
for  ever ;  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  &c.  John  xiv. 
16,  17.  He  is  our  Comforter,  as  he  is  the  Spirit  of 
wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ* 
— as  he  bears  witness  with  our  spirits,  that  we  are 
the  children  of  Godb — as  he  maketh  inter  cession  for 
the  saints,  that  is,  indites  petitions  in  them,  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  Godc — and,  as  he  renders  the 
word  and  ordinances  edifying,  refreshing  and  en- 
couraging to  our  souls.d  In  the  Favor  of  Christ,  in 
a  word,  is  lifee — a  life  of  justification1" — a  life  of 

a  Eph.  i.  17.     *  Rom.  viii.  16.    c  Ibid.  ver.  27.      d  1  Thess.  i. 
4,  5.  2  Cor.  ii.  10. 12.  Gal.  v.  5.    e  Psal.  xxx.  5.     f  Acts  xiii.  39. 


SER.   XVI.]        THAT   DWELT   IN   THE   BUSH.  531 

communion  with  God* — and  a  life  of  glory  ;h  for  he 
has  eternal  life  to  give  to  as  many  as  the  Father 
hath  given  him.  John  xvii.  2. 

Thus  understood,  our  subject  plainly  suggests, 

1.  That  the  great  REDEEMER,  in   accomplishing 
the  salvation  of  his  people,  is  moved  by  pure  Favor, 
by   mere  good-will.     Let  us,  then,   my   believing 
hearers,  endeavor  to  know,  that  is,  duly  to  consider 
and  acknowledge  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
See  2  Cor.  Yin.  9. 

2.  That,  recollecting  the  emblem  alluded  to  in  the 
text,  none  have  any  reasoji  to  think  it  strange,  that 
the  Church  of  Christ  is  commonly  in  little  esteem, 
and  often  under  much  affliction,  in  this  world.     She 
is  like  a  bush  for  obscurity,  and,  by  reason  of  her 
sufferings,  like  a  bush  on  fire.    One  design,  indeed,  of 
her  sufferings,  (as  of  the  flame  in  the  bush)  may  have 
been  to  attract  attention,  and  to  excite  inquiry.  Moses 
would  not  have  noticed  the  bush,  if  it  had  not  been 
on  fire ;  nor  would  the  Jews  residing  at  Rome,  have 
been  excited  to  hear  Paul,  if  he  had  not  been  sent 
thither  as  a  prisoner.1     The  prophet,  mystically  per- 
sonating Christ,   said,  Behold  7,  and  the  Children 
whom  the  Lord  hath  given  me,  are  for  signs  and  for 
wonders;*  and  those  with  mystical  Joshua,  are  men 
wondered  at.1    But  whatever  else  the  Lord  may  de- 
sign, in  causing  his  church  to  pass  through  so  many 
trials  and  sufferings,  we  are  certain  that  her  needful 
purification  and  his  own  declarative  glory,  are  among 

g  Eph.  ii.    18.     h  Rom.  v.  17.     »  Acts  xxiii.     k  Is.  viii.   18. 
Comp.  Heb.ii.  13.    ^Zech.  iii.  8. 


532  THE   GOOD-WILL,   &C.  [SER.  XVI. 

his  specified  ends :  for,  addressing  her,  he  saith, 
Behold,  I  have  refined  thee,  but  not  with  silver, 
which  requires  a  furnace  of  material  fire;  /  have 
chosen  thee  in  the  furnace  of  affliction.  For  mine 
own  sake,  even  for  mine  own  sake  will  I  do  it :  for 
how  should  my  name  be  polluted  ?  and  I  will  not 
give  my  glory  unto  another.  Is.  xlviii.  10,  11. 
And, 

3.  That,  however  creatur°s  may  forsake  the 
church  when  she  is  passing  through  fiery  trials, 
Christ  will  not :  /,  saith  he,  will  never  leave  thee,  nor 
forsake  thee.m  He  is  with  her,  not  merely  as  a  visit- 
or, but  as  a  resident:  This,  saith  he,  is  my  rest  for 
ever:  here  will  I  dwell ;  for  I  have  desired  it.  To 
an  eye  of  faith,  his  feet  like  unto  fine  brass,  as  if  they 
burned  in  a  furnace,  are  seen  in  the  midst  of  her 
during  her  severest  sufferings.0  ALLELUIA.  Amen. 

m  Heb.  xiii.  5.     n  Psal.  cxxxii.  14.     °  Rev.  i.  13—15- 


SERMON    XVII. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  JOSEPH  CONTINUED. 


•    JOSEPH'S    PRE-EMINENCE. 

Deut.  xxxiii.  13 — 17. — And  of  Joseph  he  said,  Blessed  of  the  Lord 
be  his  land,  for  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew,  and 
for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath.  And  for  the  precious  fruits 
brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for  the  precious  things  put  forth 
by  the  moon.  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains^ 
and  for  the  precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills,  .And  for  the  pre<- 
cious  things  of  the  earth  and  fulness  thereof;  and  for  the  good- 
will of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush.  Let  the  blessing  come  upon 
the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon  the  top  of  the  head  of  him  that 
was  separated  from  his  brethren.  His  glory  is  like  the  firstling 
of  his  bullock,  and  his  horns  are  like  the  horns  of  unicorns;  with 
them  he  shall  push  the  people  together  to  the  ends  of  the  earth : 
and  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of  Ephraim,  and  they  are 
the  thousands  of  Manasseh. 


"WHATSOEVER  things  were  written  aforetime," 
that  is,  by  the  inspired  writers  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, "were  written,"  saith  an  apostle,  "for  our 
learning,"8  who  live  under  the  gospel-dispensation. 
For  our  learning,  then,  my  Christian  hearers,  must 
the  things  which  are  now  before  us,  have  been 
written.  From  these  things  we  have  already  learn- 
ed, that  Joseph  was  an  eminent  type  of  Christ 
— -that  his  land,  with  its  distinguishing  blessings, 

a  Rom.  xv.  4 
71 


534  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvn. 

was  an  instructive  emblem  of  the  church  of  Christ 
— and,  that  this  church,  though  comparable  to  a 
bush,  nay,  to  a  bush  on  fire,  cannot  be  consumed,  by 
reason  of  the  GOOD-WILL  of  Him  who  dwells  in  it. — 
Nor  can  I  doubt,  that,  rightly  understood,  the  things 
contained  in  that  part  of  the  text  which  remains 
to  be  considered,  are  adapted  and  designed  to 
afford  us  lessons  equally  interesting  and  edifying. 

This  part  of  the  text,  that  you  may  the  more  distinct- 
ly recollect  it,  I  will  now  repeat.  It  begins  at  about 
the  middle  of  the  16th  verse,  and  reads  thus:  Let 
the  blessing  come  upon  the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon 
the  top  of  the  head  of  him  that  was  separated  from 
his  brethren.  His  glory  is  like  the  firstling  of  his 
bullock,  and  his  horns  are  like  the  horns  of  uni- 
corns;  icith  them  he  shall  push  the  people  together 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth :  and  they  are  the  ten  thou- 
sands of  Ephraim^  and  they  are  the  thousands  of 
Manas  seh. 

Moses,  led  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  here  recalls 
the  name  of  Joseph,  and  speaks  of  him  and  his  fami- 
ly, for  purposes  and  under  metaphors  which,  being 
mystically  considered,  are  full  of  instruction  concern- 
ing Christ  and  his  kingdom.  Joseph  is  here  brought 
to  view, 

1 .  To  identify  the  person  spoken  of,  that  so  he  might 
never  be  confounded  with  any  other  of  the  same 
name.  This,  Moses  effectually  did,  by  adverting  to 
a  fact  in  the  history  of  Joseph,  which  has  no  paral- 
lel in  the  Old  Testament,  and  which  is  unequivocal- 
ly recognized  in  these  words — him  that  was  sepa- 
rated from  his  brethren.  He  was  that  Joseph  who> 
in  early  life,  was  separated  from  his  vicious  bre- 


SER.  xvii.]       JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  535 

thren,  to  a  course  of  strict  morality,  and  was  made  to 
differ  from  them,  by  the  gift  of  superior  wisdom,  and 
the  privilege  of  extraordinary  intercourse  with  God. 
See  Gen.  xxxvii.  2 — 11.  He  was  that  Joseph  who 
was  separated  from  his  brethren,  by  their  wickedly 
selling  him  into  Egypt, — and  he  Was  that  Joseph 
whom  God  separated  from  his  brethren,  by  promot- 
ing him  above  them.  They,  hating  him,  separated 
him  from  them,  by  making  him  a  slave ;  but  God, 
loving  him,  separated  him  from  them,  by  making 
him  a  prince. 

But,  if  it  was  important  that  the  person  here  called 
Joseph,  should  be  thus  identified,  how  much  more  im- 
portant is  it  that  the  person  called  JESUS  should  be  so 
revealed,  that  he  might  be  known  and  distinguished 
from  every  other.  Hence  the  great  care  which  the 
Father  took  in  the  manifestation  of  him.  By  his 
Spirit,  in  Moses  and  the  prophets,  he  gave  such  une- 
quivocal characteristics  of  him,  and  caused  these  to 
be  so  conspicuously  verified  in  him,  that  none,  upon 
a  due  comparison  of  indubitable  facts  with  inspired 
predictions  and  promises,  can  innocently  mistake 
the  person.b 

Upon  this  authority  Jesus  himself  rested  his 
claims  to  Messiahship :  Search  the  Scriptures,  said  he 
to  the  Jews ;  for  in  them,  (meaning  in  their  posses- 
sion and  synagogue-use  of  them,)  ye  think  ye  have 
eternal  life,  and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  me, 
in  whom  alone  that  life  is  to  be  found.6  And,  to 
prove  the  same  points  to  the  same  people,  PAUL, 

*  Matt.  xvi.  1—3.  John  xv.  22—24.     c  Ibid.  v.  39.  and  1  John 
v.  11, 12. 


536  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvn. 

as  his  manner  was,  went  in  unto  them,  and  three 
sabbath-days  reasoned  with  them  out  of  the  Scrip- 
tures; opening  and  alleging  that  Christ  must 
needs  have  suffered,  and  risen  again  from  the  dead : 
and  that  this  Jesus,  whom  I  preach  unto  you,  is 
Christ^  To  prove  that  SHILOH,  whom  the  ancient 
Jews  acknowledged  to  be  the  MESSIAH,*  was  come, 
the  apostle,  no  doubt,  reminded  them  that,  accord- 
ing to  Genesis  xlix.  10,  the  scepter,  the  power  of 
civil  government,  had  departed  from  Judah,  that  is, 
had  ceased  among  the  Jews.  To  prove,  both  that  the 
true  MESSIAH  was  come,  and  that  he  had  suffered, 
the  apostle  unquestionably  showed,  as  he  might 
easily  do,  that  ihe  seventy  weeks,  or  490  years, 
within  which  MESSIAH  was  to  come,  and  to  be  cut 
off,  were  obviously  expired.6  And,  to  prove  that 
Jesus,  whom  he  had  preached  to  them,  was  Christ, 
the  distinguished  person  under  consideration,  he 
probably  argued  from  his  being  born  of  a  virgin, 
according  to  Isaiah  vii.  14, — from  his  being  born  in 
Bethlehem  Ephrata,  according  to  Micah  v.  2. — from 
his  residence  at  Nazareth,  that  in  fulfilment  of  Isa- 
iah xi.  1,  he  might  be  called  -nu  Netzer,  a  Nazarene 
— and  especially,  from  the  contempt  in  which  he 
was  held  by  his  own  nation ;  for  even  their  abhor- 
rence of  him,  and  all  his  sufferings  endured  among 
them,  proved  him  to  be  the  promised  and  predicted 
MESSIAH.  See  Is.  xlix.  7.  and  Luke  xxiv.  26. 

Christ,  therefore,  like  Joseph,  may  be  distinguish- 
ed and  known,  by  his  being  separated  from  his 

*  As  admitted  in  each  of  the  three   Targums,  and  in  the   Tal- 
mud. Sanhedrim,  Cap.  xi. 

d  Acts  xvii.  2, 3.    e  Dan,  ix.  24—27. 


SER.  xvii.]      JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  537 

brethren  after  the  flesh.  But  the  word  -vn  nezeer, 
which  is  here  rendered  separated,  signifies  also  a 
Nazarite,  one  separated  from  other  men  and  special- 
ly devoted  to  God/  Such  in  a  good  degree  was  Jo- 
seph ;  but  such  pre-eminently  was  his  Antitype,  the 
man  Christ  Jesus;  who  was  one  chosen  from 
among  thepeople% — separate  from  sinners1" — and,  as 
noticed  before,  was  expressly  called  a  JVazarene1. 
Like  Joseph,  too,  He  was  distinguished  by  his  pre- 
mature wisdom.  At  the  age  of  twelve  years,  he  was 
found  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors,  both  hearing  them 
and  asking  them  questions ;  and  all  that  heard  him, 
were  astonished  at  his  understanding  and  answers* 

Nor  was  He  separated  and  distinguished  merely 
in  these  respects.  His  fleshly  brethren,  moreover, 
separated  him  from  them,  when  they  sold  him  (as 
the  elder  sons  of  Jacob  had  sold  their  brother  Jo- 
seph,) for  a  few  pieces  of  silver,  and  delivered  Him 
to  strangers ;  yet  God  the  Father  separated  Him 
from  them,  as  he  did  Joseph  from  his  brethren,  by 
raising  and  exalting  Him  infinitely  above  them.* 

The  duration  and  events,  too,  of  their  respective 
separations  deserve  notice.  For,  as  Joseph  was 
long  separated  from  his  brethren,  so  Christ,  in  his 
gospel  and  in  his  gospel-church  state,  and  accord- 
ing both  to  prediction  and  threatening,"1  has  long 
been  separated  from  his  national  brethren,  the  Jews ; 
and,  as  Joseph,  while  separated  from  his  brethren, 
was  doing  wonders  and  becoming  great  in  Egypt, 
so  Christ,  while  separated  from  the  Jews,  has 

f  Judges  xiii.  5.  7.  e  Psal.  Ixxxix.  19.  b  Heb.^  vii.  26. 
*  Matt.  ii.  23.  *  Luke  ii.  46,  47.  >  Philip,  ii.  9.  m  Hosea  iii.  4. 
Matt.  xxi.  43. 


538  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvn. 

been  performing  wonders  of  grace,  and  receiv- 
ing accessions  of  mediatorial  fame,  in  the  gentile 
world.  Besides,  as  Joseph's  brethren,  when  pinch- 
ed with  famine  and  informed  of  his  abundance, 
went  to  him  in  the  land  of  Egypt  for  relief;  so  the 
time  is  coming  when  the  Jews,  realizing  their 
spiritual  wants,  shall  come  to  Joseph's  Antitype,  in 
the  Egypt  of  the  gentiles."  Yes,  like  old  Jacob,  in 
regard  to  Joseph,  the  Jews,  in  regard  to  Christ,  af- 
ter much  anxiety  and  many  doubts,  will  be  constrain- 
ed to  say,  It  is  enough — the  evidence  is  irresistible, 
JESUS,  whom  our  nation  sold  and  crucified,  is  indeed 
alive,  and  we  will  go  and  see  him* 

That  it  was  all-important,  that  the  Christ  of  God 
should  be  so  revealed  as  to  be  clearly  distinguishable 
from  every  pretender  to  this  character,  who  had  ap- 
peared before  him,  or  might  appear  after  him,  is 
evident  from  his  own  declarations  and  cautions  on 
the  subject :  All,  said  he,  that  ever  came  before  me, 
that  is,  pretending  to  be  the  MESSIAH,  are  thieves 
and  robbers;0  and,  cautioning  his  disciples  against 
future  impostors,  He  said  to  them,  Take  heed  that  no 
man  deceive  you  :for  many  shall  come  in  my  name, 
saying,  I  am  Christ ;  and  shall  deceive  many.\ 

The  same  also  may  be  concluded  from  the 
method  which  God  has  ever  taken,  to  satisfy  his 
heirs,  both  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  and  that  they 
have  a  saving  interest  in  him.  To  them,  he  gives 
not  only  the  external  evidence  of  revelation,  as  con- 
firmed by  miracles,  but  likewise  the  internal  evi- 

n  Hosea  iii.  5.     *  See  Ser.  xiv.  p.  449.  &c.    °  John  x.  8. 
p  Matt.  xxiv.  4,  5.  23—26. 


SER.  xvii.]       JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  539 

dence  of  a  record  made  in  their  hearts  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  of  what  he  has  revealed  in  his  word.    Hence 
the  gospel,  whether  as  written  or  preached,  comes 
not  to  them  in  ^cord  only,  as  it  does  to  others,  but  also 
in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  much  as- 
surance^    This  accounts  for  the  holy  confidence 
with  which  the  regenerate  receive  the  record  and 
report  of  the  gospel ;  for  he  that  believeth  in  the  Son 
of  God,  with  that  faith  which  is  of  divine  operation, 
hath  the  witness  in  himself?  both  of  the  DIVINE  SON- 
SHIP  of  Christ,  and  of  his  own  sonship  by  adoption 
and  regeneration.      Nor  can  either  be  known  with- 
out  the  internal  operation  and   revelation    of  the 
Spirit;  for,  as  no  man  can  say,  experimentally,  that 
Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost,s  so  no 
man  can  be  assured  that  he  is  a  child  of  God,  but  by 
the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry  Abba,  Fa- 
ther.1   Wherefore,  that  "the  heirs  of  promise  might 
have  strong  consolation,"  the  Spirit  itself,  by  excit- 
ing holy  desires  in  our  hearts" — by  inditing  approv- 
ed petitions  in  our  soulsw — by  opening  the  fulness 
of  Christ  to  our  mindsx — by  bringing  what  he  has 
spoken  to  our  remembrance7 — by  showing  that  our 
experience,  both  of  sorrow  and  of  joy,  accords  with 
his  testimony  in  the  word2 — by  enabling  us  to  mor- 
tify the  deeds  of  the  body,  and  by  acting  in  us  as  the 
Spirit  of  adoption,3  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit, 
that  we  are  the  children  of  God :  and  if  children,  then 
heirs ;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ. — 
Rom.viii.  16, 17. 

1 1  Thess.  i.  5.  r  1  John  v.  10.  •  1  Cor.  xii.  3.  «  Rom.  viii. 
15,  «  Psal.  cxlv.  19.  w  Rom.  viii.  27.  *  John  xvi.  14,  15, 
y  Ibid.  xiv.  26  z  2  Cor.  i.  3—7.  a  Rom.  viii.  13—15 


540  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvn. 

Chiefly,  however,  the  importance  of  Christ's  being 
clearly  revealed  and  truly  distinguished,  must  ap- 
pear from  the  fact,  that  to  mistake  another  for 
him,  is  inevitably  fatal :  No  man,  saith  he,  com- 
eth  unto  the  Father,  but  by  me ;  John  xiv.  6 ;  nei- 
ther, saith  an  apostle,  is  there  salvation  in  any 
other.  Acts  iv.  12.  How  fearful,  then,  must  be  the 
state  of  the  Arian,  whose  object  of  trust  is  a  crea- 
ted angel,  and  that  of  the  Socinian,  whose  Christ  is 
a  mere  man !  See  Job  iv.  18.  and  Jer.  xvii.  5.  Well, 
therefore,  may  every  true  convert  and  every  true 
gospel-church,  under  an  anxious  dread  of  imposition, 
say  to  Christ,  Tell  me,  O  thou  whom  my  soul  loveth, 
where  thou,  the  true  shepherd,  feedesi  thy  sheep  and 
lambs,  through  a  true  ministry,  and  where  thou  mak- 
est  THY  flock  to  rest  at  noon,  during  the  heat  of 
affliction  and  persecution  :  for  why  should  I,  who  by 
thy  grace  am  caused  to  love  thee,  merely  for  the 
want  of  additional  teaching,  be  as  one  that  (being 
a  hypocrite,)  turneth  aside  (of  choice)  by  the  flocks 
of  thy  companions,  the  flocks  of  imaginary  Christs — 
Christs  exhibited  by  anti-christian  teachers,  through 
the  medium  of  another  gospel,  ichich,  in  reality,  is 
not  another,  but  a  flexible  accommodating  system 
falsely  called  gospel.  See  Cant.  i.  7.  Matt.  xxiv. 
24.  and  Gal.  i.  6— 9. 

2.  The  special  notice  here  taken  of  Joseph  was 
to  designate  him  as  the  person  on  whom  the  bless- 
ing was  pronounced,  and  through  whom,  in  all  its 
variety,  it  came  to  his  posterity.  Let  the  blessing, 
that  which  is  so  diffusively  expressed  in  the  pre- 
ceding  parts  of  the  text,  come  upon  the  head  of  Jo- 
seph, and  (or  even)  upon  the  top  (or  crown)  of  the 


SER.  XVII.]          JOSEPH'S    PRE-EMINENCE.  541 

head  of  him  that  was  separated  from  his  brethren. 
Hereby  we  are  mystically  taught  the  infinitely  more 
interesting  truth,  that  all  the  blessings  of  grace  and 
of  glory  were  originally  conferred  upon  the  great 
Antitype  of  Joseph,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that, 
through  him,  they  come  to  his  mystical  posterity;  to 
whom  grace  was  givi,n  in  him,  and  for  whom  eternal 
lifewsis  promised  to  him,  and  both  before  the  world 
began.  2  Tim.  i.  9.  and  Titus  i.  2.  Herein,  too, 
we  may  discover  why,  in  relation  to  them,  Christ  is 
called  the  everlasting  Father  ;b  which  can  have  no 
respect  to  any  relation  he  sustains  in  the  Godhead, 
(wherein  the  idea  of  two  Fathers  would  be  absurd,) 
but  simply  denotes  his  relation  to  the  elect,  who  from 
everlasting  were  representatively  and  seminally  in 
him,  and  who,  in  the  succession  of  ages,  receive  of 
his  fulness  that  grace  through  which  they  are  spiritu- 
ally generated  by  him;c  and  whereas  neither  He,  as 
the  source  of  life  to  them,  nor  They,  as  the  partak- 
ers of  life  from  him,  can  ever  die/  the  said  rela- 
tion between  him  and  them  must  necessarily  be 
everlasting  in  its  duration.  Besides,  He  might  be 
styled  Father  in  relation  to  them,  on  account  of  the 
manner  of  their  heirship  ;  for  whereas,  by  the  DI- 
VINE COMPACT,  their  title  to  eternal  life  is  involved  in 
his  title  thereto,  as  Mediator,6  and  the  inheritance 
itself  is  placed  in  his  gift/  they  come  into  the  pos- 
session of  it  by  his  TESTAMENT  and  through  his 
DITATH— the  death  of  the  TESTATOR  ;  see  Heb.  ix.  16, 
17;  a  passage  which,  at  least  according  to  our  ver- 

b  Is.  ix.  6.     c  John  i.  16.  Eph.  i.  5.  10.  ii.  7.     <*  John  xiv.  19. 
eRom.  vii.  17      f  John  xviii.  2. 

72 


542  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.        [SER.  xvir, 

sion,  cannot  be  consistently  interpreted  without  ad- 
mitting the  above  relation. 

Having  noticed  the  purposes  of  Joseph's  special 
identification,  I  precede  to  consider  the  metaphorical 
description  of  him,  which  follows  it.  This  assigns 
to  him, 

First,  Great  magnificence :  his  glory  is  like  the 
firstling  of  his  bullock,  or  bull,  as  *w  shor,  the  word 
used,  also  signifies.  This  similitude,  however  ob- 
scure and  uncouth  it  may  seem  to  us,  was,  in  those 
early  times,  and  especially  among  the  Jews  and  the 
Egyptians,  not  only  perfectly  intelligible,  but  even 
highly  elegant.  Among  the  Jews  the  bulls  of  Ba- 
shan  acquired  so  much  fame  as  to  become  the  com- 
mon representatives  of  great  men — men  most  distin- 
guished for  authority  and  influence/  And  with  the 
Egyptians,  a  bull  was  reckoned  so  comely  and  ma- 
jectic,  that  MENES,  their  first  king,  as  ^ELIANUS 
CLAUDUS  relates,*  preferred  it  above  all  animals  as 
an  object  of  worship.  Nay,  even  the  Syrian  goddess 
ASTARTE,  (the  same  with  the  Grecian  VENUS,)  is 
said  by  SANCHRONIATHON,!  to  have  placed  a  bull's 
head  upon  her  own,  as  a  sign  of  royalty.} 

Now,  as  Bashan  was  a  country  possessed  by  the 
posterity  of  Joseph,  the  famous  cattle  bred  there  are 
called  his ;  and  the  metaphor  was  designed  to  signi- 
fy that,  in  certain  respects,  Joseph  and  his  posterity 


s  Psal.  xxii.  12.     Amos  iv.  1. 

*  Hist.  Animal.  1.  ii.  c.  10.  f  A  Phoenician  historian,  who 
flourished  a  few  years  before  the  Trojan  war,  which  commenced 
1193  years  before  Christ,  f  See  in  Eusebius — Evangelical  Pre- 
paration. B.  i.  p.  38. 


.  xvii.]         JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  545 

resembled  the  most  excellent  and  most  highly  privi- 
ledged  of  those  animals,  even  a  firstling,  a  first-born 
among  them.  •  Thus  employed,  the  simile  carries 
in  it, 

1.  A  recognition  of  Joseph's  extraordinary  jmw0- 
geniture,  with  all  its  appendant  honors  and  privi- 
leges. These,  originally  belonged  to  Reuben,  Ja- 
cob's first-born ;  but  through  his  forfeiture  of  them, 
they  devolved,  by  divine  appointment,  upon  Joseph: 
The  birth-right  was  Joseph's.*1  A  much  greater 
mystery,  too,  was  herein  designed  and  illustrated-. 
In  the  order  of  nature,  Adam,  who,  by  the  plastic 
hand  of  the  Creator,  preceded  from  the  virgin  earth, 
was  (of  men)  God's  first  born,  and  is  called  his  son? 
nay,  according  to  primogeniture,  he  was  his  heir,  and, 
by  delegation,  his  representative :  God  said  to  him, 
Have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over 
the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that 
moveth  upon  the  earth*  But  when,  as  illustrated  in 
Reuben,  he  forfeited  all  by  transgression,  the  pri- 
mogeniture, and  therewith  all  its  prerogatives  and 
honors,  devolved  openly  (as  before  they  did  secretly) 
upon  our  spiritual  Joseph,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
See  Psal.  viii.  5 — 9.  Him,  therefore,  God  the  Fa- 
ther styles  his  first-born;1  and  Him  hath  he  reveal- 
ed as  his  Son,  whom  he  hath  appointed  heir  of  all 
things.  Heb.  i.  2. 

That  none,  however,  may  misapprehend  the 
above  suggestion  respecting  Adam  and  Christ,  let  it 
be  distinctly  understood,  that  I  do  not  thereby  mean 

h  1  Chron.  v.  2.     *  Luke  iii.   3a     k  Gen  i    27,  28,     J  Psal. 
Ixxxix.  27. 


544  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvu. 

that  Adam  forfeited,  either  for  himself  or  his  posteri- 
ty, any  blessing  provided  in  the  COVENANT  OF  GRACE. 
This  was  impossible;  ior,  as  the  covenant  of  grace 
was  not  made  with  him,  but  with  Christ,  the  bless- 
ings provided  in  it  were  not  entrusted  to  him,  but  to 
Christ ;  in  whom  the  Father  blessed  his  elect  with 
all  spiritual  blessings  ....  according  as  he  hath 
chosen  us  in  him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  ;m 
and  hence,  our  salvation  and  calling  of  God  are,  not 
according  to  our  works,  (the  covenant  of  which  was 
made  with  Adam,)  but  according  to  his  own  purpose 
and  grace,  which  was  given  us  (not  in  Adam,  but) 
in  C/irist  Jesus,  and  that,  not  after  Adam  fell,  but 
before  the  world  began.  2  Tim.  i.  9.  Even  Adam 
himself,  by  his  natural  constitution,  was  neither  a 
subject  of  grace,  nor  an  heir  of  glory.  He  was 
created  a  sinless  man,  but  not  a  gracious  man — 
an  heir  to  the  earthly  paradise,  but  not  to  the  heaven- 
ly ;  and  consequently  he  had  neither  grace  to  lose 
or  to  communicate,  nor  glory  to  confer  or  to  forfeit. 
Not  the  first  Adam,  but  the  LAST  was  made,  that 
is,  constituted,  by  covenant-prerogative,  A  QUICKEN- 
ING SPIRIT;  1  Cor.  xv.  45;  and  glory  is  that  eter- 
nal life,  which  God  that  cannot  lie,  promised 
before  the  world  began,  and  therefore,  not  to  Adam, 
for  his  natural  posterity,  but  to  Christ,  for  his  mys- 
tical posterity.  See  Titus  i.  2.  and  Rom.  vi.  23. 
To  these  provisions  in  the  everlasting  covenant, 
Christ  had  respect,  when  he  said  to  his  disciples, 
/  am  come,  that  ye  may  have  life,  and  that  (com- 
pared with  all  that  Adam  had  and  lost)  ye  might 
ham  "  more  abundantly.  John  x.  10.  Thus  it  is 

»  Epb.  i.  3,  4. 


SER.  xvii.]          JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  545 

that  Christ,  for  all  he  represented,  hath  virtually 
abolished  death,  and  prospectively  brought  life  and 
immortality  to  light  through  the  gospel.  2.  Tim. 
i.  10. 

2.  The  simile  before  us  imports  the  freedom  of 
Joseph's  posterity;  for  although  Joseph  himself  had 
been  a  slave  and  a  prisoner  in  Egypt,  yet,  being 
honorably  released  from  prison,  and  being  mar- 
ried to  a  free  woman,  given  to  him  by  the  king,* 
his  posterity  were  free ;  in  which  they  resembled 
the  firstling  of  his  bullock,  which,  by  divine  in- 
junction, was  exempt  from  the  yoke  of  labor.  See 
Deut.  xv.  19  The  freedom  of  Joseph's  posteri- 
ty, however,  was  but  a  type  of  the  more  illustrious 
freedom  enjoyed  by  the  mystical  posterity  of 
Christ.  For  though  He  was  made  under  the  law 
and  became  obedient  unto  death,  nay,  was  imprison- 
ed in  the  tomb — yet,  being  raised  and  released,  all 
his  redeemed  were  representatively  raised  and  re- 

*  The  father  of  the  woman  whom  Pharaoh  gave  Joseph  to 
wife,  was  not,  as  some  have  thought,  the  same  with  Pharaoh's 
officer  to  whom  Joseph  had  been  sold.  For — 1.  Their  names, 
especially  in  the  original,  widely  differ.  The  name  of  Joseph's 
master  was  "la'Dia  Potapher,  and  that  of  his  father-in-law  ;na  '013 
Poti-pherah,  or,  more  properly,  Poti-pherang.  And — 2.  Their 
offices  were  wholly  dissimilar  ;  the  former  was  an  officer  of  Pha- 
raoh's, probably  his  chamberlain,  and  captain  of  the  guard,  a  kind 
of  chief  marshal  about  Pharaoh's  court;  Gen.  xxxvii.  36;  where- 
as the  latter  was  a  priest,  the  priest  of  On,  a  place  which  in  the 
Septuagint  is  called  'HXi*iroXew£  Heliopolis,  the  city  of  the  sun. 
Gen.  xli.  45.  Nor  is  it  at  all  probable,  that  Joseph  would  have 
married  the  daughter  of  a  woman  so  scandalously  wicked  as  his 
mistress,  and  who  had  occasioned  his  degradation  and  imprison- 
ment. 


546  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvn. 

leased  with  him  ;  Rom.  iv.  25 ;  whereby  they  were 
virtually  made  free — and,  on  believing  in  him,  they 
become  experimentally  so  :  for  whom  the  Son  makes 
free,  are  free  indeed  See  John  viii.  36.  Besides, 
Christ  being  openly  married  to  the  church,  given  to 
him  by  the  King  immortal,  eternal  and  invisible, 
and  she  being  the  allegorical  Sarah,  the  free  woman, 
all  his  posterity  by  her,  are  legally  and  eminently 
free.  See  Rom.  vii.  4.  and  Gal.  iv.  31.  And, 

3.  This  simile  suggests  the  equal  and  indefeasi- 
ble heirship  of  Joseph's  posterity,  to  all  that  apper- 
tained to  his  portion  ;  for,  their  being  "like  ihejfirst- 
ling  of  his  bullock,"  denotes  that  they  were  in  the 
rank  of  a  first-born,  whose  title  to  the  paternal  in- 
heritance was  unequivocal.  Deut.  xxi.  17.  Where- 
fore, in  their  heirship  also,  as  well  as  in  their  free- 
dom, they  manifestly  typified  the  mystical  posterity 
of  Christ,  who  are  all  first-born,  that  is,  heirs;  Heb. 
xii.  23 ;  and  whereas  both  their  title  and  their  in- 
heritance (as  noticed  before)  are  in  Christ,  who  is 
emphatically  the  FIRST-BORN  or  Heir  among  many 
brethren,1"  they  are,  by  consequence,  joint-heirs  with 
Him.  Rom.  viii.  1 7. 

To  procede.  This  metaphorical  description  of 
Joseph, 

Secondly,  Assigns  to  him  great  power,  signified 
by  the  horns  attributed  to  him  ;  a  horn  being  a 
scripture-symbol  of  power,  strength,  &c.°  Such 
horns,  too,  were  attributed  to  Joseph  as  are  the 
most  powerful :  His  horns  are  like  the  horns  of 

n  Rom.  viii.  29.  Col.  i.  18.      °  Psal.  Ixxv.  10.     Jer.  xlviii.  25. 


SER.  xvii.]       JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  547 

Unicorns.*  Whatever  was  the  beast  alluded  to,  by 
its  horns  Moses  evidently  meant  Joseph's  two  sons, 
Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  the  force  of  each  tribe, 
when  brought  into  the  field,  being  like  a  large  horn, 

*  QiO  re-earn,  the  appellative  here  rendered  unicorns,  is  in  the 
singular  number — the  plural  of  which  is  O'm  rem-eem ;  Psal. 
xxii.  21  ;  or  O^OfcO  re-eameem;  Is.  xxxiv.  7.  But  whereas  pp 
keren  horn,  both  in  its  construct  state,  (^p  karne  horns  of,}  and 
with  1  postfixed  (vjlp  karnav,  his  horns,}  is  in  the  plural  form,  our 
translators,  to  avoid  the  incongruity  of  attributing  a  plurality  of 
horns  to  a  unicorn,  a  one  horned  animal,  employed  the  plural 
form  of  the  appellative,  unicorns.  No  such  accommodation, 
however,  is  requisite.  Most  probably  the  animal  alluded  to,  is 
the  rhinoceros,  whose  name,  from  f^v  the  nose  and  xs£«£  a  horn, 
denotes  it  to  be  nose-horned.  Of  this  genus  there  are  two  spe- 
cies— the  fjt,ovox?£W£  unicornis  one  horned,  and  the  dwsgog  bicor- 
nis  two  horned;  the  former  having  one  large  horn,  and  the 
latter  two.  The  former  is  very  accurately  described  by  Dr. 
Parsons;  see  Philosoph.  Transac.  No.  470,  p.  523,  &c.  or 
Abridg.  Vol.  ix.  p.  94,  &c.;  and  the  latter,  by  Mr.  Bruce,  in  the 
History  of  his  Travels,  Vol.  v.  p.  91,  &c.  See  also  Shaw's  Travels 
p.  430,  Note  1 ;  and  Buffon,  Tom.  ix.  p.  334.  According  to 
Bruce,  the  two  horns  of  this  animal  grow,  not  like  those  of  other 
horned  animals,  side  by  side,  on  the  forehead,  but  one  on  the  nose, 
and  the  other  at  some  distance  above  it,  on  the  face ;  and  though 
each  is  long  and  strong,  the  lower  one,  in  these  respects,  greatly 
excels  the  upper  one.  Well,  therefore,  might  Moses  say  of  Jo- 
seph, His  horns,  his  two  tribes,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  are  like 
the  horns  of  a  rhinoceros,  both  powerful,  but  Ephraim  greatly  ex- 
celling. 

To  this  solution  of  the  difficulty,  (a  difficulty  which  all  commen- 
tators have  felt,)  it  is  not  a  sufficient  objection  to  say,  as  some  do, 
That  "  the  two  horned  rhinoceros  is  found  only  in  the  southern 
parts  ofJlsia  and  Africa."  It  may  be  so  now,  yet  might  not  be  so 
in  the  days  of  Moses. 

The  unicorn  whose  figure  is  exhibited  in  heraldry,  is  now  ge- 
nerally supposed  to  be  merely  fabulous. 


548  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SEE.  xvn. 

very  powerful  and  terrific.  See  Judges  viii.  1.  and 
xii.  1.  This  interpretation  of  Joseph's  horns,  is 
confirmed  by  the  text  itself;  at  the  close  of  which, 
Moses  says,  They  are  the  ten  thousands  of 
Ephraim,  and  the  thousands  of  Manasseh.  Horn- 
ed animals  are  also  symbols  of  distinguished  com- 
manders. Thus  Darius  and  Alexander  are  repre- 
sented as  running  violently  at  each  other  with  their 
horns.  Dan.  viii.  3 — 6.  Hence  it  is  probable  that, 
in  our  text,  this  symbol  designed  certain  eminent 
leaders  and  warriors  that  were  to  be  raised  up 
among  the  posterity  of  Joseph  ;  as,  for  instance, 
Joshua,  the  illustrious  successor  of  Moses,  and 
Gideon,  a  famous  deliverer  of  Israel,  and  who  de- 
scended, the  former  from  Ephraim?  and  the  latter 
from  Manasseh.q 

But  let  us  not  forget,  that,  in  a  national  point  of 
view,  the  posterity  of  our  divine  Joseph,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  consists  also  of  two  branches,  to  wit, 
Jews  and  Gentiles;  and  that,  nevertheless,  in  an  eccle- 
siastical sense,  He  hath  'made  both  one,  having  bro- 
ken down  the  middle  wall  of  partition  between  us. 
Eph.  ii.  14.  And  as,  among  the  posterity  of  Jo- 
seph, certain  leading  and  principal  men  were  rais- 
ed up  for  warfare  in  national  Israel,  so,  among 
the  posterity  of  Christ,  there  have  been  men  distin- 
guished by  grace  and  gifts,  by  fortitude  and  zeal,  to 
take  the  lead  in  fighting  the  battles  of  spiritual  Is- 
rael, by  contending  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  de- 
livered to  the  saints.  Such,  pre-eminently  such, 

p  Num.  xiii.  8.  16.    «  Judges  vi.  11.  15. 


SER.  xvn.]       JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  549 

were  the  apostles — and  such,  in  a  good  degree, 
have  been  many  whom  Christ  has  raised  up  since 
their  times. 

Nor  must  we  omit  to  notice  the  pre-eminence 
which  Moses,  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  here  gave 
to  Joseph's  younger  son.  It  was  a  confirmation  of 
what  Jacob,  moved  by  the  same  Spirit,  had  mysti- 
cally signified  long  before;  for,  when  about  to  pro- 
nounce the  prophetic  blessing  on  Joseph's  two  sonsy 
"  guiding  his  hands  wittingly,"  he  laid  his  right  hand 
(the  more  honorable)  upon  the  head  of  Ephraim, 
the  younger,  and  his  left  hand  (the  less  honorable) 
upon  the  head  of  Manasseh,  the  elder.  See  Gen. 
xlviii.  14 — 19.  Accordingly,  Ephraim  excelled, 

1.  In  numbers.  He  had  his  ten  thousands,  while 
Manasseh  had  but  his  thousands.  And  as  it  was 
in  the  type,  so  also  has  it  been  in  the  Antitype  ;  for, 
though  Christ  has  indeed  had  his  thousands  among 
the  Jews,  answering  to  Manasseh,  the  elder  brother, 
he  has  had,  comparatively,  his  ten  thousands  among 
the  gentiles,  corresponding  to  Ephraim,  the  young- 
er brother :  Unto  him  have  the  gentiles  sought,  arid, 
to  them,  his  rest  has  been  glorious.  Is.  xi.  10. — 
Herein  are  verified  the  words  of  Christ,  The  last 
shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last.  Matt.  xx.  16.  And, 
2.  In  dignity.  To  EPHRAIM,  as  a  mark  of  ho- 
norable distinction,  belonged  Samaria,  the  royal 
city  of  the  ten  tribes/  And  thus,  under  the  present 
dispensation,  to  provoke  the  Jews  to  jealousy,  "  The 
city  of  the  great  king,"  the  visible  church,  apper- 
tains to  another  people ;  Christ  having,  agreeably  to 


r  2  Kings  xv.  27. 

73 


550  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER,XVH, 

his  premonition,*  taken  "  the  kingdom  of  God"  from 
them,  and  given  it  to  us.  Hence,  among  us  He  con- 
descends to  keep  his  palace,  to  hold  his  courts,  to 
deliver  his  laws,  and  to  dispense  his  favors.  What 
an  honor  is  this  conferred  upon  us  poor  gentiles  1 
Let  us  not  be  high-minded,  but  fear.  Horn.  xi.  20. 
This  metaphorical  description  of  Joseph^  more- 
over, 

Thirdly,  Assigns  to  him  great  victories.  It  was 
not  in  vain  that  he  had  horns  like  the  horns  of  a 
rhinoceros ;  for  with  them,  said  Moses,  he  shall 
push  the  people  together*  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  or 
of  the  land,  meaning  the  land  of  Canaan,  which  an 
apostle  calls  the  earth.  Rom.  ix.  28.  Literally, 
this  was  fulfilled  in  Joshua,  a  descendant  of  Joseph, 
when  he  conquered  thirty-one  kings  of  that  coun- 
try ;*  but  mystically  it  has  been,  and  more  abun- 
dantly will  be  fulfilled  in  Christ,  the  Antitype  both  of 
Joseph  and  of  Joshua.  And  though  the  victories  of 
Joseph,  achieved  by  his  illustrious  descendant, 
Joshua,  were  all  in  Canaan,  (here  intended  by  the 
earth,)  yet,  as  Canaan  was  IMMANUEL'S  land,"  those 
literal  victories  which  extended  to  the  ends  of  it, 
were  typical  of  the  spiritual  victories  of  Christ, 
which  must  extend  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  under- 
stood in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  words  ^  for, 
to  Him  shall  be  given  the  heathen  for  his  inheritance, 
and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  pos- 
session. See  Psal.  ii.  8. 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked,  that  correspondent 
to  Joseph's  two  horns,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  both 

•Matt.  xxi.  43.    *  Josh.  xii.  7—24.    « Is.  viii.  8. 


SEE.  xvii.]       JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.  551 

branches  of  Christ's  militant  kingdom,  believing 
Jews  nd  believing  gentiles,  have  been  employed? 
by  Him,  in  extending  his  spiritual  conquests  and  en 
larging  his  visible  empire.  By  his  apostles,  raised 
up  among  the  former,  He  not  only  published  his  gos- 
pel throughout  Judea,  but  ushered  it  also  into  the 
gentile  world — and,  by  his  ordinary  ministers,  suc- 
cessively granted  to  the  latter,  He  has  ever  since 
been  extending  the  same  gospel,  with  various  suc- 
cess, among  the  nations  ;  moreover,  we  are  assured, 
by  prophecy,  that  he  will  continue  to  do  so,  till,  by 
the  overwhelming  light  of  the  latter  day,  "  the 
earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  LORD,  as 
the  waters  cover  the  sea."  Is.  xi.  9. 

To  confirm  the  church  and  ministers  of  Christ 
in  the  hope  of  all  the  promised  and  predicted  glory 
of  his  kingdom,  they  are  informed, 

1.  That,  to  Him,'ihe  Father  hath  given  power  over 
all  flesh,  all  nations,  that  He  should  give  eternal 
life  to  as  many  (among  them  all)  as  He  (the  Father) 
hath  given  Him,  whenever  and  wherever  they 
should  be  found  on  the  earth.  See  John  xvii.  2, 
And,  that  his  ministers  might  not  be  appalled  at  the 
pretensions  and  menaces  of  any  adverse  power, 
whether  official  or  popular,  Christ  prefaced  the 
commission  under  which  they  act,  with  an  assertion 
of  his  universal  dominion  ;  saying  to  them,  ALL 

POWER  IS  GIVEN  UNTO  ME  IN  HEAVEN  AND  IN  EARTH  : 

Go  ye  therefore^  and  teach  all  nations,  &c. — Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  evfry 
creature.  What,  then,  are  earthly  sovereigns  when 
opposed  to  Him'!  Ail  kings  shall  fall  down  be- 
fore him,  either  penitent,  or  slain  ;  and  all  nations 


552  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvn. 

shall  serve  him.     Psal    Ixxii.   11.     By  Him,    even 
Satan,  the  prince  of  this  world  is  judged.     John  xvi. 
11.     Nor  can  there,  in  a  word,  be  any  possible  ob- 
struction to  his  march.     At  his  approach,  Every  val- 
ley shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and  hill 
shall  be   made  low;    The   crooked   shall  be  made 
straight,  and  the  rough  places  plain :  and  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  jlesh,  all  na- 
tions, shall  see  it  together :  for  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord  hath  spoken  it.     Is.  xl.  5.     Neither  can  there 
be  any  deficiency  of  instruments  or  of  means.     For, 
2.  With  Christ  are  all  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  and 
all  the  treasures  of  nature  ;  and  which,  at  pleasure, 
He  employs  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  great  de- 
sign.     He,  who  gave   apostles  and  prophets,  and 
evangelists,  gave  also,  and  still  gives  pastors  and 
teachers — pastors  to  feed  churches,  and  teachers,  to 
preach  to  the  destitute :  and  of  .the  latter,  He  will 
continue  to  give,  till,  coextensively  with  the  com- 
mission He  delivered,  they  shahteach  all  nations. — 
Besides,  upon  his  saints  in  common,    He  will  be- 
stow such  gifts  as  shall  render  them,  like  well  disci- 
plined soldiers,  expert  in  handling  the  sword — "  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God." 
Eph.  iv.  1 1.  and  vi.  17.     Nor  can  He  be  deficient  in 
means  :    The  silver  is  mine,  and  the  gold  is  mine, 
saith  the  LORD  of  hosts. w     And  though  these  pre- 
cious metals  may  be  chiefly  claimed  (as  they  have 
hitherto    been)  by   men  of  the  world,  the  hearts  of 
their  claimants  (those  of  kings  not  excepted)  are  in 
his    hand,1  and  he  can,  at  pleasure,  either  by  his 

w  Hag.  ii.  8.     *  Prov.  xxi.  1. 


SEE.  xvii.]      JOSEPH'S   PRE-EMINENCE.  553 

grace  turn  them  to  himself,  or  by  his  providence 
transfer  their  treasures  to  his  friends,  who  shall 
willingly  consecrate  their  gain  unto  the  LORD,  and 
their  substance  unto  the  LORD  of  the  whole  earth.^y 
Then,  as  renewed  by  His  grace,  or  controlled  by  His 
providence,  "  the  kings  of  Tarshish  and  of  the  isles 
shall  bring  presents  ;  the  kings  of  Sheba  and  Seba 
shall  offer  gifts — nay,  to  HIM  shall  be  given  of  the 
gold  of  Sheba ;  prayer  also  shall  be  made  for  him 
continually,"  that  is,  for  the  prosperity  of  his  cause  ; 
"  and  daily  shall  he  be  praised."2  And, 

3.  To  crown  all,  He  will  pour  out  of  his  Spirit 
upon  all  flesh?  that  is,  upon  all  nations,  and  his  peo- 
ple among  them  all,  even  all  the  incalculable  millions 
that  are  His,  by  covenant  and  by  ransom,  shall  be 
made  willing  in  the  day  of  his  power — willing  to 
forsake  their  refuges  of  lies,  to  trust  in  His  perfect 
righteousness,  and  their  evil  ways,  to  be  devoted  to 
His  delightful  service.  See  Psal.  ex.  3.  and  Rev.  v. 
9.  and  vii.  9. 

Having  now  to  take  leave  of  this  important  sub- 
ject, let  us  not  do  it  without  a  few  pertinent 

REFLECTIONS. 

1.  Has  God  been  pleased  thus  carefully  and 
explicitly  to  distinguish  His  Christ  from  all  false 
ones  1  Let  us  remember  the  kindness  of  the  design : 
it  was  that  we  might  not  make  the  fatal  mistake  of 
receiving  another  for  him ;  there  being  SALVATION 
in  none  other.  Acts  iv.  12. 

y  Micah  iv.  13.  Comp.  Josh.  vi.  19.  2  Sam.  viii.  10,  11.  and 
Rev.  xxi.  24.  *  Psal.  Ixxii.  10.  15.  »  Joel  ii.  28.  Acts  ii.  16. 


554  JOSEPH'S  PRE-EMINENCE.       [SER.  xvir. 

2.  Is  Christ  the  revealed  Depository  of  all  spiritu- 
al blessings  1     Let  us  never  expect  to  receive  such 
blessings    from  any  other  source,  or  through  any 
other  medium ;    remembering  that  it  hath  pleased 
the  Father  that  in  him  should  all  fulness  dwell ; 
and  that  no  man  comethunto  the  Father  but  by  HIM. 
Col.  i.  19.  and  John  xiv.  6. 

3.  Must  the  victories  of  Christ,  according  to  pro- 
mise and  prophecy,  be  numerous  and  extensive  ?  Let 
us  rejoice  in  hope,  and  pray  without  ceasing.    Rom. 
v.  2.  and  1  Thess.  v.  17.  * 

4.  Will  Christ,  like  Joshua,  show  no  mercy  to  the 
finally  rebellious  ?    O    sinners !  tremble  and  bow : 
he  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life ;  but 
the  wrath  of  God  abideth  upon  him.     John  iii.  36. 
And, 

Finally,  As  Christ,  like  Joshua,  receives  all 
submissive  suppliants — let  penitent,  broken-heart- 
ed sinners,  be  encouraged  to  seek  his  favor.  Let 
not  the  consciousness  of  your  guilt,  however  accu- 
mulated or  aggravated,  prevent  your  approach. — 
The  grounds  of  your  hesitancy  are  all  removed,  by 
his  own  gracious  declaration  ; — him  that  cometh  to 
me,  I  will  in  no  wise,  on  no  account  whatever,  cast 
out.b  EVEN  so,  LORD  JESUS.  AMEN. 

*  John  vi.  37. 


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